


The Power of Love

by philosophize



Series: The Goddess Trilogy [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/F, Female Harry, Female Harry Potter, Femslash, Romance, Veela
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-10
Updated: 2018-09-10
Packaged: 2018-09-11 10:04:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 79,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8975194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/philosophize/pseuds/philosophize
Summary: Yule Ball Panic sequel: Jasmine Potter revealed her feelings to Hermione, who is willing to give dating a try; but wizarding culture doesn't tolerate witches as couples. How will they navigate love and a relationship while dealing with Voldemort, bigotry, and meddling old men? Includes growing power, new revelations, ancient conflicts, and hidden prophecies.





	1. I Kissed a Witch

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Here it is, the sequel to "Yule Ball Panic." If you haven't read that, I recommend you do so — this will make a lot more sense. Thanks to all those who have reviewed, followed, and favorited this story. And a special thanks to Mainsail and Bonnie for beta reading this story and thus making it better than it was originally. If you have questions about what's going on, feel free to add them to a review — I'll try to answer. And don't be shy about reviewing just because the story is done. I like to see what people think various chapters and scenes.
> 
> Recommendation: Story recommendation for this chapter is "Heart and Soul" by Sillimaure. Like my story, Sillimaure's develops the plot and relationships slowly and carefully. It also does a good job at revealing both the positive and negative aspects of Dumbledore's and Snape's characters. It's a long fic, but well worth reading.

**Thursday, December 10, 1994, Early Afternoon.**

Hermione Granger was at a total loss for words — a condition she was completely unfamiliar with. Well, she _had_ been completely unfamiliar with it, but it had happened to her several times now over the past hour or so. It was hardly surprising that it all occurred in connection to her first and best friend, Jasmine Potter. If there was one thing Jasmine was good at, it was getting Hermione into unique and difficult situations.

Jasmine wasn't any better at the moment, staring back at her with a small smile on her face and a growing brightness in her eyes. Hermione was certain that the look on her friend's face was being reflected back on her own. Despite having always avoided serious thoughts about romance or dating, she had just received her first kiss. What's more, that first kiss was from a girl!

After having revealed that she fancied Hermione, Jasmine had suggested kissing to see whether the feelings could be returned. _It was loads better than my idea of going as a couple to the Yule Ball as a test of whether I could see girls as potential romantic partners,_ Hermione realized. _Jasmine was right: a kiss is not only much smaller than a date, it's much more significant. That wasn't a casual kiss, however short it may have been. It isn't something I can ignore or walk away from._

Since she had long suppressed romantic feelings, Hermione had never truly focused her thoughts on boys, so she considered that it might indeed be possible that she could experience attraction to girls... or at least to Jasmine. Contrary to all preconceptions, she actually liked the kiss. In fact, she liked it enough that she decided that going to the Yule Ball as Jasmine's date might be more interesting than she originally imagined.

Assuming Jasmine asked her properly, of course.

At this point, it dawned on Hermione that being at a loss for words wasn't so bad because maybe words weren't appropriate to this situation. _First_ , she thought, _I should confirm my new findings by repeating the experiment. Just to be certain that the first time wasn't a fluke. For science!_

Unlike with their first kiss, the girls moved into their second kiss with much less hesitation. Also unlike last time, Hermione was quick to return the kiss, making it far more mutual and thus more enjoyable for both. Too caught up in the unfamiliar sensations, neither noticed a slight, glowing light that briefly appeared to radiate out from the centers of both of their chests — blue from Hermione and green from Jasmine.

For each of the girls, the glowing light grew to the point of encompassing a small portion of their chests before the two witches separated and the glow disappeared. Had someone been there and looked closely, they might have been able to see small, wispy tendrils starting to stretch out from each glowing ball of light towards the other.

This time, Jasmine wasn't at a loss for words. "Brilliant!"

Hermione's smile grew at the breathy declaration and she quickly agreed. "Brilliant is right, and I'm pretty sure that it'll get better with practice."

This caused Jasmine's eyes to light up as she grinned. "Practice? I like the sound of that..."

"Honestly, Jas," Hermione said as she rolled her eyes, "we have other things we need to deal with right now. Kissing isn't the most important thing on our list."

"It's not?" the redhead asked with a pout as she leaned in again slightly. "Are you sure?"

Staring back into her friend's green eyes, Hermione didn't feel so sure anymore. Her heart started to race, her stomach did a funny little flip, and she couldn't concentrate on solving the problem they faced. She was... _distracted_. She didn't normally like distractions from her work, but she feared this new distraction from Jasmine was going to plague her. Against her better judgment (which for some reason had hung out a sign reading "Gone for the Holidays"), Hermione also started leaning in again and closed her eyes...

**Bang! Bang!**

Both girls pulled apart so fast, they might as well have apparated to opposite sides of the room. Hearts racing, they looked around trying to figure out where the sudden noise had come from.

**Bang! Bang! Bang!**

"It's the door," Hermione said with a huff. "Someone wants in but of course can't get past my spells." Jasmine worked to straighten out her hair while Hermione rushed over to the door where she undid her spells and opened it. Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil, two of their roommates for the past three years, stood outside.

"What the hell, Hermione? Why'd you lock us out of our room? We've been trying to get in for ten minutes!"

"Sorry, Lavender... uh, I was talking with Jasmine about the tournament and... didn't want to be disturbed."

Neither girl seemed mollified by that answer as they pushed their way past Hermione and into the dorm where Parvati took up the thread of complaint. "That's no excuse, there are lots of places to talk alone. This is our dorm as much as it is yours. We were about to go get McGonagall."

"That's my fault," Jasmine said. "I had an idea about how to handle the screeching egg and didn't want to risk it disturbing people elsewhere — we're not sure what sort of sound it's making. Since there was no one here, Hermione decided to silence and seal the door to protect others from the sound. We spent longer on it than we intended. Sorry about that." Jasmine was staring at the floor in an attempt to hide her blushing at having been nearly caught.

Mentioning the golden egg which Jasmine had acquired in the first task had the desired effect. Lavender and Parvati didn't like being locked out of their room, but they already had one experience hearing that egg screech and didn't want seconds. "Well, that was nice of you... I guess. But next time leave a note or something outside the door, OK?" Lavender didn't ask if they were successful and neither did Parvati. Nor did they appear to care. Both girls had shunned first Jasmine for allegedly cheating to get into the tournament, and then Hermione for sticking by her friend.

Jasmine and Hermione were certain that the two gossip queens had also spread malicious rumors about Jasmine during the month before she faced the dragon. Then, like so many other students after the first task, they had tried to pretend that everything was fine and to go back to how things were before Halloween, as if no one had done anything wrong. They seemed to expect Jasmine and Hermione to instantly forgive everyone and let bygones be bygones, regardless of what they had done or whether they showed the slightest bit of remorse.

Instead of going along with that plan, Jasmine and Hermione had been cold in their responses to people. They had made a point of being polite and civil, but they had refused to show any warmth and used as few words as possible. It would be hard enough for them to forgive those who apologized, but few enough did even that. The fact that neither of them, but especially Hermione, had been popular with lots of friends meant that the only thing which changed was that the two Gryffindors had basically given up on trying to fit in.

Hermione argued that the lack of apologies was because wizards and witches didn't like to admit to being wrong and so ignored evidence of error or wrongdoing. Jasmine disagreed and argued instead that wizards and witches tended to ignore _anything_ that contradicted their preferences or assumptions — including but not limited to their own personal mistakes.

Hermione thought Jasmine was being too cynical; Jasmine thought Hermione was being too naive.

"You're right, you're absolutely right. We'll be more considerate in the future. C'mon Jas." Hermione rushed over to her friend and, grabbing her arm in one hand while with the other scooping up their book bags, rushed back to the door and out of the dorm. If Lavender and Parvati noticed that this was the friendliest the other two had been since Halloween, despite the fact that this was an argument, neither made any mention of it.

* * *

"Where are we going, Hermione, and do we really need to get there so fast?" Jasmine was certain that her arm was going to be wrenched out of its socket any second. She was happy to get out of the dorm and avoid any further discussion with Lavender and Parvati, but she wished they could have left with a bit more dignity.

"Sorry, Jas. I just... you know I'm not a good liar, and I didn't think I'd be able to keep the story going if we stayed there any longer. Besides, if we're going to talk to Professor McGonagall, we should do it tonight after dinner — but we can't do that unless we try to schedule a meeting with her first. I thought we'd send her an owl with a message. That way she'd get it in private and no one would wonder why we're scheduling a meeting. The fewer people who know anything about what's going on, the better."

Hermione then stopped so quickly that Jasmine ran right into her, almost sending both sprawling on the floor. Spinning around, the brunette witch looked intently at her friend and said, "Wait, you said before that you have doubts about Professor McGonagall. Why? What doubts? What brought that on? She's our Head of House, Deputy Headmistress, and our professor. How could you not trust her? Is there something else mmmpph!" Hermione's rant was suddenly cut off by a quick but intense kiss from Jasmine.

Instead of continuing to rant, the bushy-haired witch simply gaped at her friend. "That's a much better way of getting you to stop than trying to talk over you... good thing no one else is in the hall right now, though." Jasmine looked around and, seeing an empty classroom close by, pulled her still-dazed friend in behind her. Without saying a word, Hermione applied the same silencing and privacy spells to the classroom door that she had earlier applied to their dorm door. Turning around, she glared at her friend, stamped her foot in frustration, and simply said, "Ugh! Honestly!" She then sat down at the closest desk, crossed her arms, and waited expectantly for Jasmine to talk.

Sighing, Jasmine said, "I'm sorry for cutting off what must have seemed like a perfectly good rant, but once you get going it's hard to get a word in edgewise. You've gotten better about that sort of thing, no doubt, but sometimes..." Jasmine suddenly looked a bit sheepish. "Well, to be perfectly honest, once the idea occurred to me I couldn't resist." Hermione's eyes narrowed a little, but the slight upturn at the corners of her mouth told Jasmine she wasn't _really_ mad at the kiss. She was annoyed about currently being denied information.

"OK, first you have to understand that there's no one, single, massive incident that has caused me to feel suspicious about Professor McGonagall. It's a lot of things that have built up over the years, but they seem to have increased this year. Or maybe the latest incidents have simply been the straw the broke the camel's back? I don't know. I've had an awful lot on my mind and haven't had a chance to organize it all."

Jasmine stopped for a minute to gather her thoughts, then continued. "I guess I'll start at the beginning. Do you remember the incident with Hagrid's dragon? Of course you do. I won't go into how many points she took from us — I say it was ridiculously excessive and caused a lot of needless harassment from our Gryffindor "family," but points can be subjective. Instead, consider the detention she gave us. We were sent into the Forbidden Forest — you know, that place that Dumbledore warns us about at the beginning of every school year? Supposed to be, oh, I dunno, _forbidden_?" Jasmine didn't notice Hermione's frown at the sarcasm and kept going.

"We weren't gathering potion ingredients, we were hunting a creature so dark, so fast, and so strong that it could take down and kill unicorns. Unicorns! Who sends firsties to hunt down a unicorn killer? We were chaperoned by Hagrid — a strong guy, but what little magic he can do, he can't do it well; and even then, it's illegal for him. On top of that, we split up, leaving me alone with Draco Malfoy, the incredible bouncing ferret, and Fang, the cowardly dog! I would have been lucky to survive that night no matter what we encountered, be it Voldemort or something else, and it was McGonagall who put us in harm's way!" Hermione started biting her bottom lip, considering the implications of what Jasmine was telling her. Being given sound reasons to distrust her favorite professor was not sitting well with her.

"At the end of first year we tried to warn McGonagall that someone was about to steal the Philosopher's Stone, but she refused to believe us. Granted, three firsties aren't the most credible witnesses, but given how important the stone was, I think she had an obligation to at least check — it's not like a quick stop in the third floor corridor would have required a lot of time or taken her away from some more important crisis. Had she checked, it would have saved us a lot of trouble."

Hermione frowned as she pondered this, and Jasmine was happy to see that her argument wasn't being rejected outright.

"In second year, you remember how nearly everyone in the castle treated me: some were terrified of me, some hated me, and some were both. You were the only one who was fully on my side. Even Ron gave me some suspicious glances. He _wanted_ to support me, but he couldn't help having doubts — probably a sign of how deeply ingrained certain wizarding prejudices are, even with a family like the Weasleys. Well, why didn't McGonagall say or do anything about it? She certainly knew about it. Sure, Dumbledore should have said and done something too: as headmaster, what happens in Hogwarts is ultimately his responsibility. But McGonagall is both Deputy Headmistress and our Head of House, making her more personally responsible for my well being than the headmaster is. At the very least, she should have had a meeting with our house to address the rumors. If I'd had the support of all Gryffindor, it might have been easier to endure the hostility of the rest of the school. Some 'family,' huh?"

None of this was new to either girl, but reciting it aloud was clearly making Jasmine angry. By the end, she was practically growling. "But she didn't. I needed her, but she never said anything. She never even came to me privately to express her concern or ask how I was doing. Certainly showed no interest in my home life..." She had to take a few deep breaths to get her anger under control before continuing.

Hermione wanted to point out that Jasmine could have gone to their head of house herself, but realized that that probably wasn't how Jasmine's mind worked. _Growing up, did she learn to trust adults? Probably not. I learned to trust and rely on adults, but since adults never helped her, she wouldn't have learned to ask them for help. I guess it's a small miracle that she's learned to rely on the couple of friends she's made. Come to think of it, it's amazing that she trusted me enough to admit her feelings earlier... Jasmine_ _ **never**_ _likes to talk about her feelings. Any feelings. And then to simply kiss me in the middle of the corridor! That's so unlike her._

This gave Hermione pause as she considered how Jasmine would interpret current events in the light of past experiences. _I see recent failings as aberrations, but Jasmine sees failings as confirming what she learned through ten years at the Dursleys. I see exceptions; Jasmine insists there's a pattern. Maybe she's right?_

Finally having collected herself, Jasmine continued, "Third year wasn't too bad. There were no awful experiences where McGonagall failed me; at the same time, though, she didn't **do** anything for me either. Like in previous years, she never asked how I was doing or if I needed anything. I have to admit, though, that that's not something I realized at the time. It's only something that I've come to recognize in hindsight. I never got a lot of help or support from teachers in muggle schools, so having the same experience here wasn't something I gave much thought to." Hermione was surprised to hear this level of insight from her friend. _Maybe she's matured a lot more than I realized..._

"This year has been the worst yet, even worse than second year. Not a single member of the staff has stood up for me or defended me against accusations of cheating. None of them has defended either of us against the rampant harassment and bullying. As before, Dumbledore certainly should have, but McGonagall as our Head of House has had a more immediate and personal obligation to do so. She hasn't called any house meetings. She hasn't initiated any private conversations."

"Then, earlier today, when she dumped on me the news that I must have a date to start off the ball, she refused to listen to any of my objections! Instead, she insisted that "tradition" was more than enough justification to force me into this and then had the gall to tell me to learn how to dance so I don't make the school or our house look bad! Yeah, as if we hadn't already been made to look bad by the fact that my name was illegally entered and then by the way I've been treated by everyone! She places greater importance and value on me dancing well than on you and me not being attacked or bullied!"

_Thank Merlin for the strength of my silencing spells_ , Hermione thought as Jasmine's rant descended into shouting. Not thinking further about everything she had heard, Hermione focused on what was immediately important: Jasmine's deteriorating mood. Hermione had asked for this explanation and so felt partially responsible for the anger it produced. Jumping up out of her chair, she rushed over to her friend and pulled her into a tight hug.

Jasmine relaxed for several minutes into Hermione's embrace, breathing in deeply while her face was covered by Hermione's hair; the bushy hair tickled her nose, but as always, it was the most relaxing and comforting place she knew of. Hermione had become infamous among those closest to her for her tight, rib-cracking hugs — "Hermihugs," as Jasmine termed them once before being chased out of the common room by a series of stinging hexes from the bushy-haired witch's wand.

This time, though, Jasmine felt that there was a different quality to the hug. It was tight, no doubt about it, but she could feel an undercurrent of affection and other, undefined emotions that she didn't normally detect during her usual gasps for breath.

"I'm sorry," Hermione started apologizing, "I can't believe that I never put all of that together. You're right that when it's all laid out like that, rather than looked at in isolation, it's pretty damning." Hermione wasn't sure how to continue, because she didn't have a backup for her idea of going to Professor McGonagall.

"I have to tell you, though, that Professor McGonagall has always been receptive to me when I've gone to her for help or advice. I've always looked up to her and tried to emulate her. And it doesn't look like she has ever actively worked _against_ you, at least not that we've ever seen. She's not like Professor Snape." Jasmine couldn't deny this, but the idea that McGonagall had provided more help to other students reignited some of her anger.

"There's no denying that Professor McGonagall has failed you badly, but I don't think it's due to malice. If it's not due to malice, then perhaps it's a mistake or a misunderstanding — and in that case, it can be rectified. Maybe she can explain or apologize and do better. That would put her on the road to being trustworthy, yes? And if she can be trusted, she'd be the best member of staff for us to deal with, right?"

Jasmine had to think about that for a couple of minutes and finally concluded that Hermione was right. Whatever McGonagall's problems with her were, she didn't hate the Girl Who Lived as Snape so obviously did. And if she could be trusted, then it would be better to have their Head of House to rely upon than anyone else. If only that had truly been the case since the beginning of her time at Hogwarts!

"I suppose..." Jasmine said slowly.

Hermione reached out and grabbed her hand. "Don't forget that I'll be there, too. No matter what happens, we'll be able to handle it together. Right?"

This made Jasmine smile. "Right. But that means that we will have a lot more to do in this meeting, as if it weren't already important. Will we have enough time?"

Biting her lip in thought for a moment, she replied, "Yes, I think so — it's Thursday, and in the past I've usually found her grading essays and doing other paperwork on Thursday evenings, especially this term." After looking at her watch, she added, "We have enough time to write a message and send it out before lunch ends, then we have to get through a double lesson of DADA. It won't be until dinner, I think, that we'll learn if she'll meet with us."

Rolling her eyes, Jasmine was once again dragged along by Hermione as the manic witch quickly undid her spells from the classroom door and rushed back out into the hall to continue their mad journey up to the castle's owlery. Once there and after greeting Hedwig, Hermione helped Jasmine write out a letter to Professor McGonagall which the familiar was instructed to deliver only to the professor and only when she was alone. Hand-in-hand, both witches then hurried back down the stairs to catch the end of lunch.

* * *

Sitting in her office after lunch, Minerva McGonagall was surprised to see Jasmine Potter's snowy owl come flying in through her open window. Mail normally came during meal times, but even so, it was practically unheard of for a student to send owl mail to a professor while both were in the castle at the same time. This unusual delivery portended an unusual message, piquing her curiosity.

After handing the owl a treat, McGonagall opened the parchment and frowned at the message. _Miss Potter has an important personal issue that she needs to discuss with me as her Head of House and needs to do it as soon as possible, preferably this very evening after dinner?_ Her first reaction was to assume that this had to do with the discussion she had with her Gryffindor witch a couple of hours earlier — the girl was rather put out at having to attend the ball with a date, and McGonagall had been taken a bit aback at how strongly she complained. She wasn't used to hearing such a disrespectful attitude and tone from any of her lions.

She reconsidered, though, when she reread the message and noted that the girl specifically referenced a need to speak to her "Head of House." After reflecting on the contents, she realized that it probably related to something personal, and since it was the first time she had come to her Head of House with such a matter, it was likely important as well.

Looking at her schedule for the day, she noted that she only had her usual Thursday evening paperwork ahead of her, so she should be able to accommodate her student, even if it turned out to be a lengthy meeting. Nodding to herself and deciding to send the girl a positive response at dinner, she returned to revising her lesson plan for her afternoon Transfiguration classes.

* * *

**Thursday, December 10, 1994, Evening.**

Having dropped off their books back in their dorms, Jasmine and Hermione walked side-by-side towards the Great Hall for dinner. If they noticed that they walked a bit closer together and brushed up against each other a bit more often, neither said anything. Then again, both were preoccupied with their own thoughts about everything that had already happened today and how much more they had to contend with before the day ended.

The two young witches had very similar yet also very different thoughts. Both were surprised at how much had happened. Both were a bit intimidated at how much their relationship was changing. Both were also hopeful about how their relationship might proceed while still being fearful at how that relationship might be perceived.

The differences were probably more significant than the similarities. Hermione was mostly confused. She was confused about why Jasmine would fancy her of all people — hearing Jasmine recite all her good qualities didn't cause her to suddenly believe it. She was also confused about her own sexuality: she might not have previously given romance any serious thought, but if asked, she'd have answered that she was straight. Was that solely because of society's expectations and norms? And she was confused about the actions of Professor McGonagall over the past three years. She had always looked up to and respected their Head of House, but now she wasn't so sure. Even if it were all a horrible misunderstanding, the woman had failed significantly, and Hermione wouldn't be able to respect her nearly as much for a while.

Jasmine, in contrast, was feeling unexpectedly confident — more confident than she had ever been before, in fact. She always felt a bit better when she knew Hermione was by her side, but this change in their relationship seemed to bring the other witch closer to her, and that boosted her confidence by quite a bit. Jasmine was feeling more optimistic about the tournament, about her future, and about her life in general. For a girl who grew up living in a cupboard, denied not only sufficient food but also even the tiniest amount of love and affection, this represented a massive shift in attitude. On top of it all, Jasmine also thought she felt a bit more powerful magically. During their double DADA lesson, the spells they practiced came easier to her and hit her partner with a bit greater force.

Thus distracted, they walked into the Great Hall without noticing that quite a few more people were paying closer attention to them than usual — including Draco Malfoy.

* * *

**A/N** : Just to get this out of the way, because I expect to have questions and even perhaps complaints in reviews: yes, that was a "soul bond" being started. I know that the concept is overused and even badly used, but I hope I can reassure skeptical readers that I'll be using the concept in a way that is a bit different from most.

First, the bond is gradual rather than instant. It takes a while to get established and develops in stages as their relationship develops. It is, in fact, based on their relationship rather than the other way around. So, second, it "improves upon" rather than "creates _ex nihilo_." It encourages and strengthens a relationship, it doesn't create love out of nothing. It doesn't make them magically married by chapter 3. It doesn't mean that a couple won't argue and won't have to put in work to make a relationship successful, but it can make the work a little easier. Finally, it's part of a continuum of magical bonds, so it's not some weird "deus ex machina" device. There are similar bonds that are even more common. And, like all magic, it has both benefits and potential costs. If you don't treat it right, it can turn around and bite you.

Why am I using the concept? First, I find it interesting. Second, this is a story about magical people in a magical community learning magic. Inserting magic here as well makes sense to me. Third, it will play an important role in the overall plot beyond the romance. The exact mechanism won't be explained until near the end, but you will see its effects before long.

The simplest reason is that it is, indeed, a shortcut. A completely realistic story would require showing _years_ of their lives. Jasmine has to overcome some years of repressed sexuality, not to mention more than a decade of abuse and neglect. Hermione is facing difficult questions about her sexuality — what's genuinely "her" and what is a product of social expectations? Is she gay? Bi? Is she simply attracted to Jasmine? Is she perhaps leaping at the first person making an offer? Yeah, it would take a long time for the two of them to deal with all of that baggage and I would probably never finish. A "soul bond" lets me cut through some of it in order to make the characters' lives a bit easier.

If I do a good job as a writer, then I'll use this plot device just enough, but not too much (relationship-wise). I'll cut out the boring therapy sessions, the long evenings crying over tubs of ice cream, and similar bits that are part of reality, but not often part of interesting stories. What should be left are the more interesting bits — ups and downs that happen in real relationships, but with reduced angst and trauma for the sake of efficiency and short attention spans. If I do a good job as a writer, then it shouldn't _detract_ from the plot and relationship developments. Do let me know if I succeed or fail.


	2. Belling the Cat

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Recommendation: Story recommendation for this chapter is "Vox Corporis" by MissAnnThropic. If you're a Harry/Hermione fan, you should already be familiar with this story.

**Thursday, December 10, 1994, Evening.**

When the two Gryffindor witches walked into the Great Hall for dinner that evening, it was technically their second meal as a couple — though lunch barely counted given how little time they'd had to wolf something down. To be fair, they weren't announcing themselves as a couple yet, but they still _felt_ like a couple.

Things they had done together thousands of times before now suddenly looked new and different, simply because they were doing them as a couple rather than as two separate individuals who happen to be together. _Well, that's not entirely true, is it?,_ Hermione mused to herself. _The two of us — three, when Ron was with us — were a team for most of the past three years. Jasmine and I weren't a romantic couple, but we were far more than two individuals or even two friends, weren't we?_

All of a sudden, Hermione became very self-conscious and wondered if people could tell, even if neither she nor Jasmine had said or done anything overt yet. _Can they see it in my face? Are we standing too close? Is someone going to jump up, point their finger, and start making accusations?_

Draco Malfoy, of course, was all too happy to oblige Hermione's worries, although not quite for the reasons she was afraid of: "Hey, scarhead! Who are you going to pay to go to the Yule Ball with you? Do you even have enough galleons to pay someone to do that?" Jasmine stiffened as soon as she heard Malfoy's grating, sneering voice. "At least you have a chance at buying a decent date; that's better than your mudblood friend can say. Maybe she can rent herself out, assuming anyone would be that desperate." Malfoy's comments were accompanied by jeering laughter from the Slytherins and more than a few snickers from the Ravenclaw table.

Jasmine wasn't conscious of drawing her wand, but on her right Hermione felt the movement and was able to put her hand firmly on her friend's arm to keep her from maiming or possibly killing the pureblood bigot. "Don't, Jas," she hissed. "He's not worth it!" She could feel the auburn-haired witch trembling in anger as she pulled hard to direct her over to the Gryffindor table. It wasn't unusual for Jasmine to get upset at things Malfoy said, but this struck Hermione as far worse than usual.

Glancing sideways at her, she thought she could see her eyes almost glowing in barely-contained power, but when she blinked it was gone. _Must have been a trick of the light_ , she decided. _I think. I don't know where this level of anger is coming from, but I'll need to get her to control it._

The two witches sat on the farthest side of the hall away from the Slytherins; that meant having to face the Slytherin table on the opposite side of the hall, but looking at the Slytherins was preferable to having their backs to them. Across from them Neville Longbottom and Ginny Weasley had already started dishing out their own dinners and looked with concern at their two friends.

"Is everything alright?" Neville asked. Looking specifically at Jasmine, he said, "You look... a little upset."

Judging by how violently Jasmine was flinging food on her plate, she probably wouldn't be able to put together a coherent thought for a bit, so Hermione answered for them both. "It's been a hectic day. You know of course that there will be a Yule Ball in a couple weeks; well, Jasmine was told after Transfiguration that she's required to go because it's 'tradition' for champions to open the ball with a formal dance." Neville grimaced at the thought. He was still having trouble dealing with the idea that he had an _option_ to ask someone to go with him.

"Obviously, this means that Jasmine is required to have a date," Hermione continued. "She can't skip it, even if it's not an official tournament event. She can't come alone, even though everyone else is allowed to. She's been in a right state all day, and then Malfoy had to vent his vile little spleen as soon as we came in here."

"Well, that explains why Jasmine is getting all stabby with her food," said Ginny a bit nervously. "Do you think we should take away the sharp utensils until she calms down?"

"Not unless Malfoy is stupid enough to come over here before dinner ends," Hermione said brusquely. _Could that be it?_ she thought to herself. _Is she so angry because so many things happened at once? But she wasn't_ _ **angry**_ _earlier, she was_ _ **panicked**_ … _._

"Yeah, and when was the last time Malfoy was known for his brains or self-preservation instincts?" Neville asked, interrupting her train of thought. "This is the same Slytherin who thought it was funny to insult a Hippogriff before approaching it, remember?"

Hermione's fork paused halfway to her mouth and she sat there with her mouth open for a moment before responding, "Nah, he's not that stupid. Right?"

The sole response to that was the "clank, clank" of Jasmine stabbing her food while glaring daggers in the direction of the Slytherin table. Ginny and Neville were growing increasingly nervous, so Hermione poked her friend hard in the side with her elbow, breaking her out of her cycle of rage. Jasmine looked over at the bushy-haired witch, blinked a couple of times, and exhaled deeply. "Sorry about that. I'm not sure what exactly came over me. It's not like he hasn't insulted us before."

"You need to watch your anger, Jas. Despite being a champion, you're not immune from punishment if you hurt Malfoy badly. Well...at least, I don't think you are. It's true you're exempt from classes and end-of-year exams." Hermione stopped to consider that for a moment. "Come to think of it, we were never given a copy of the tournament rules like we asked for, were we? We've got to get that to see what exactly you are and are not allowed to do."

"Yeah, but you know what's especiallyinteresting, Hermione?" Jasmine waited as her friend raised in eyes in response. "Malfoy used the m-word again — he practically shouted it in the Great Hall in the middle of dinner. Did anyone say anything to him? Did any of our teachers dock him points, give him detention, or even warn him? In fact, did any of you notice any sort of negative reaction from anyone at the staff table?"

Hermione frowned at that. It was true, nothing happened to Malfoy for what he said. _Why didn't I notice that?_ she wondered. _Maybe it's because nothing_ _ **ever**_ _happens to him for what he says, no matter how vile his words or threats are. I've become so used to it that I don't even notice it anymore!_

"You're right, Jasmine," Ginny said, frowning as well. "I don't think I've ever seen him punished for his language."

Neville looked troubled. "You don't think they actually condone the things he says, do you?"

"That's something Jasmine and I were talking about earlier," Hermione replied. "I never noticed it before because I kept looking at all of the incidents in isolation, but every year Jasmine has problems and she never receives support from our teachers — not in little things like bullying from Malfoy, and not in big things like accusations of cheating to get into the Triwizard Tournament. If you look at it all together... well, it doesn't make the school look very good, does it?"

"I don't know if any of them approve of it, but failing to even tell him off, never mind punishing him, sends **everyone** the message that his bigotry is OK," Jasmine added. "And it's not just the pureblood bigots who are getting that message — the rest of us are being told that it's fine for us to be abused and harassed. That we should get used to it. That our feelings aren't important. That feeling safe in our own school isn't important."

Neville grew even more troubled at these words, but Ginny became visibly upset. Turning to Jasmine, she said in a rush, "I'm so sorry that I didn't support you right away when your name came out of the cup. I'm sorry I didn't speak up when people called you a cheater. I may not have known you for as long as some, but I certainly knew you well enough to know that you wouldn't cheat and you wouldn't lie about it. I never _truly_ believed that you cheated, but I did have doubts and I feel awful about that..."

"No, Ginny, it's OK. Given your experience with your brothers, it's natural for you to wonder about that. More importantly, you **did** apologize to me — and you did so even before the first task. That's way better than most others in this school have treated me, so I don't hold your doubts against you." Jasmine smiled warmly at the girl, trying to reassure her.

"I know I didn't treat you as badly as some, but I also didn't treat you as well as others." Ginny looked pointedly at the boy sitting next to her. "Neville, here, believed you right from the beginning and even helped you a bit to prepare for the first task." Turning back to the other girls, she said, "I hope you know that I'll do anything I can to help with the second and third tasks." Neville blushed at the praise, but then sat up a little bit straighter, too.

Smiling at this exchange, Jasmine glanced briefly up at the head table, wondering what the teachers thought about Malfoy's words, and wondering how they justified not saying anything. As she did so, her eyes caught those of Professor McGonagall, who gave her a short, quick nod. Jasmine nodded back in response, then quickly returned her attention to the Gryffindors across from her.

"I can't tell you how great it was knowing that Neville supported me. Having his help to prepare was important too. I'm glad that you'll be there for me in the coming tasks, Ginny. It's a shame that the teachers aren't allowed to help, so I need support from friends even more." Looking over at Hermione, she added casually, "Speaking of which, don't forget you promised to help me with Transfiguration after dinner." Hermione's eyes widened, then she smiled at hearing that.

"Is there anything I can do?" Neville asked. "Unfortunately, my Transfiguration grades are barely average."

"No, thanks," Hermione answered quickly. "We already have it planned out, and it shouldn't take too long anyway. We need to make certain that we get it done while we have a chance. Now that we know the Yule Ball is coming — and by the way, can I just say that it's ridiculous that they announced such an event with only two weeks notice! — it's going to get busy around here."

After this, the conversation turned to more casual matters as the four Gryffindors discussed classes and gossipped about the other schools. It wasn't long before Jasmine spied Professor McGonagall finishing her dinner and slowly making her way along the head table. She nudged Hermione, who nodded that she had noticed the same thing, so they both hastened to finish their own meals and said goodbye to their friends.

* * *

Walking along the corridors from the Great Hall to McGonagall's office, the moods of the two young witches were, ironically, the opposite of what they had been before dinner. Hermione was still conflicted over what might be going on with Professor McGonagall, but she was trying to feel more confident that it would all work out. Jasmine, who had been quite confident earlier, was starting to feel increased trepidation over the coming conversation and what consequences it might have.

When they arrived at the office door, Jasmine stopped Hermione from knocking and asked her, "Are you sure we're doing the right thing?" Hermione could see that her friend was getting increasingly nervous and tried to reassure her. "Stick to the plan we discussed earlier and it'll be fine. No matter what her real feelings are, she shouldn't be able to betray you."

Seeing that her words didn't work as well as she had hoped, Hermione took some inspiration from Jasmine's earlier actions. Grabbing the front of her robes with one hand, she pulled the green-eyed witch into a short but intense kiss, leaving her a bit stunned but smiling. "For luck!" Hermione said before she turned and knocked on their professor's door. As she did, a strange thought flashed through her mind: _I wonder what would have happened had I simply done that back in first year before she left me to face Voldemort. Wait, I didn't_ _ **want**_ _to do that at the time, did I? I never thought about any girls in that way, right?_

Jasmine was still smiling a bit goofily when they heard the old Scotswoman bid them enter, but she managed to shake most of it off by the time they sat in the hard, straight-backed chairs in front of the professor's desk. Minerva McGonagall looked a bit surprised to see two witches enter her office, having received a request for an appointment for only one. "I want to say I'm surprised to see you here, Miss Granger, but truth be told, you and Miss Potter have been so attached at the hip for the past three years that I shouldn't be shocked to see you anywhere with her." Raising one eyebrow, she added, "To be honest, I half expected to see you follow her out to face the dragon last month."

"Frankly, I almost did, Professor," Hermione responded. "I was in the champion's tent, in fact, almost up to the point where the four champions chose the dragons they faced. Headmaster Dumbledore had to order me out."

McGonagall's mouth twitched ever so slightly, "I hadn't heard that, but I can't say I'm surprised in the least. Now, which one of you would like to tell me what urgent personal matter has brought the two of you here at this time of evening — and after a rather secretive request for an appointment, too. Don't think I didn't notice how your familiar delivered a message within the castle and after I was alone, Miss Potter." The older professor folded her hands on her neatly-organized desk and waited.

The two witches shared a meaningful look before Hermione turned back and said, "We both have something important to discuss with you — in some ways it's mostly about Jasmine, but it does involve both of us. However, we were unsure whether to bring this to you at all."

"To be specific," Jasmine cut in, "I was unsure whether we should bring this to you or not. In principle we should be able to do so — you're the one we **should** be able to go to. That's why Hermione recommended you in the first place. But I'm honestly not sure whether I can trust you enough, and when I explained my reasoning, Hermione agreed that I had a point. So she's unsure now, too. And so we have a problem. We have something that we need to talk to **someone** about — someone with experience and authority — but it needs to be someone we can trust unconditionally. What should we do?"

Minerva McGonagall sat stunned at what she just heard her two young lionesses tell her. She had anticipated many different possible topics of conversation — this wasn't the first time a girl under her care had needed to talk to her about "urgent personal problems," and it certainly wouldn't be the last. Of all the possible problems she might have had to address, however, she hadn't expected this — she hadn't expected that **she** would be the problem.

With narrowed eyes, she regarded the two witches for a few seconds and noted that neither shrank back from her gaze. "If I'm going to answer that, perhaps you should explain to me first why it is, exactly, that I don't have your trust? I hold three important positions in this school, all of which require me to have at least some trust and respect from the students. I have many years of experience and like to think that I do a fairly good job. But do tell, Miss Potter — in what way am I not living up to your expectations?" she asked frostily.

It was a mistake for her to adopt such a stern, defensive posture in her reaction — understandable, but a mistake — because the witches before her responded in kind. When they laid out the problems which Jasmine had earlier explained to Hermione, they did so in a harsher and more aggressive tone than they might otherwise have used. Between the two of them — with Hermione adding in some details which even Jasmine hadn't thought of — they presented a case that forced even McGonagall to start reconsidering some of her decisions.

Not quite willing to admit fault on all the points they raised, she attempted to defend herself on at least some of it. "I can appreciate not wanting to be treated poorly by some of the other students, Miss Potter, but the staff here at Hogwarts cannot regulate what every student thinks and cannot force students to treat everyone else nicely. That's especially true when it comes to the interactions between Gryffindors and Slytherins. Learning to live with the fact that not everyone will like you is a part of life."

Both girls frowned in annoyance that their professor didn't seem to understand the gravity of the situation. "If this were simply a few students and isolated incidents, I'd agree with you," Jasmine said. "But it's not. It's about everybody in the school acting the same, horrid way. In some cases, you could even say it's organized. During my second year, an awful lot of students treated me badly because they thought I was the Heir of Slytherin — because they thought I was guilty of attacking others in the corridors. None of the teachers tried to correct the false rumors being spread. That's not the same as making people like me."

Professor McGonagall sat back to consider that, but Jasmine continued. "It's similar this year. Most of the students believe that I cheated to get into the Triwizard Tournament, but the teachers know better. Yet no one has tried to stop any of the harassment, and no one has done anything to set the record straight. Nobody lifted a finger about those buttons that were so popular before the first task."

Hermione added her own thoughts, saying, "Professor, there's a huge difference between a few students not liking Jasmine or not treating her very well, and most of the students harassing her because of accusations which the staff know are wrong. Professors can't do much about the first, except maybe in extreme cases — it's something we all have to live with. The second, however, is a different story. When teachers don't correct false accusations, they're basically giving their approval to both the accusations and the resulting harassment."

"If there were false rumors going around that you cheated to get your position," Jasmine said cautiously, unsure of how this analogy would be received, "and students were being disrespectful because of that, I'm pretty sure you'd publicly denounce the accusations and punish people who ignored the correction."

"You shouldn't be expected to work in such an environment, Professor," Hermione added, "so why should Jasmine be expected to learn in such an environment?"

That last statement hit Professor McGonagall like a slap in the face. She had worked hard to get to where she was and was proud of her achievements. _I'd be furious if I were accused of having cheated_ , she realized, _and while such an accusation against a student isn't quite as grave as it would be against someone in my position, it is still quite serious. When the cheating is bad enough, it's something they can be expelled for. The same is true for attacking others in the halls. It is also something that the staff has an obligation to address, at least when it reaches the level it has in Miss Potter's case._

Now, looking back on all of the incidents and problems that her two young Gryffindors had raised, she wasn't nearly so confident in her ability to defend herself. _This is something I am going to have to give a lot more thought to_ , she thought wearily. _It seems likely that there is more truth to their concerns than I was willing to acknowledge._

It was at that point that it struck her how some of her actions or inactions could have gotten one or both of these young witches killed. _Sweet Merlin_ , she thought as the full gravity of those incidents finally hit her. _How could I have been in such denial? Why would I have thought those decisions were..._ _**Albus!**_ _He was the one who kept reassuring me that everything was fine and that no one would be harmed, even when I raised my own concerns and objections. But that doesn't explain why I always went along with him…._

Her face had paled at this realization, and there seemed little left to say. Instead, she stood and walked over to a set of nearby shelves that contained a mixture of books and decorations. With a slight tremor, she poured herself a large measure of scotch from a bottle and serving set located on the middle shelf and brought it back to her desk.

Normally she would never drink in front of students, especially ones so young as these, but their complaints cut too deep. The scope of her failure was too great. _Even if I didn't accept any of the rest of their concerns_ , she thought with resignation, _the danger I've put them in more than justifies their lack of trust in me._

Seeing such a strong reaction from their normally unflappable teacher, Hermione felt compelled to add, "Professor, you should know that any one of these incidents might be dismissed as a fluke if it stood alone. It's when you put them all together that you realize there's cause for concern. I didn't even notice the pattern, much less think about how these incidents might appear to someone else, until Jasmine brought it all to my attention earlier today — and she didn't start making the connection herself until this term."

Minerva took a healthy swig of her scotch and paused for a moment to collect herself before responding. "That's a fair point, Miss Granger; but given my position, I probably should have noticed the pattern long before now. It worries me greatly that I didn't. It worries me that I consistently listened to the counsel of others rather than my own conscience. Granted, I am busy with many duties, and that includes an entire House to supervise; but my first duty is to the students, and if I don't have the time to notice such problems and deal with them, then I've stretched myself too thin."

Jasmine and Hermione had hoped for some sign of contrition that could eventually lead to a resolution and possibly trust, even in the face of Jasmine's doubts. This reaction, however, was much more than they had expected, and so they didn't quite know how to proceed. Fortunately for them, their professor chose to continue — but only after taking another sip of her drink.

"Given the severity of the incidents, you deserve an explanation for what's happened. I'm not sure I can give you a satisfactory one, though. While I have to take full responsibility for my own actions, you should know that I'm not entirely responsible for everything. In many cases, I have been following instructions and advice given by someone else..."

"Dumbledore," growled out Jasmine as Hermione grabbed her hand.

"Indeed," the Deputy Headmistress responded with a frown. "His choices and actions with regards to you are... suspect. It's not something I ever thought about before, but now that I'm looking back at everything the problem seems rather obvious. I don't think it would be unreasonable to say that if these things had happened to any student other than you, action probably would have been taken to help them, and they would not have been left to flounder on their own."

McGonagall pondered her last words and considered that Miss Potter had indeed been left on her own so often, abandoned to her own devices without any system of support or comfort. _What would she be like if she didn't have the witch sitting next to her right now?_ she thought to herself. _It was scarcely an exaggeration to describe them as being attached at the hip — it's so rare to see one but not the other. Even the Weasley twins seem to go their separate ways more often than these two._

"Well, I think that should probably be a discussion for another time. If you haven't already, I suggest thinking more critically about the things Albus Dumbledore has or has not done with regards to you, Miss Potter. Maybe Miss Granger can help. Do the same thing you did with me and look for patterns. We can meet again later to discuss it further, if you'd like. Right now, though, I think we need to focus on your reason for being here: trust. You don't trust me. I must admit that when I first heard that I was shocked, but now I'll concede that you have some grounds for your concerns. I doubt I would feel differently in your place."

After pausing for a moment to give everyone a chance to think about that, she resumed, "So where do we go from here? I do wish to deserve your trust — not only because I'm your professor and Head of House, but because I'm genuinely fond of the two of you. We professors aren't supposed to have favorites, but I can't deny that I have greater regard for you both than I do most other students. What can I do to earn your trust? What can I do to help you with this personal problem, Miss Potter?"

The two witches looked at each other, trying to decide what to do. They unconsciously mirrored each other, biting their bottom lips in thought. Minerva thought it was cute and wondered how long that had been going on. Finally, Jasmine turned to her professor and said, "I have a lot of trouble trusting adults, but Hermione is convinced that trusting you is our best route forward. I'm not so sure, but I've learned that my Hermione is right far more often than not, so I'm willing to try going forward. But the problem we need to talk about is serious enough that even if we did trust you, we wouldn't talk about it lightly. We need strong assurances that it wouldn't go beyond this room. Would you be willing to do something like take a magical oath?"

Minerva had hoped that the evening's shocks had ended, but clearly she was in for a bumpy broom ride. The admission that Miss Potter didn't trust adults wasn't all that surprising, though it was disturbing. What truly surprised her was the request for a magical oath. Such oaths were dangerous and only made in the gravest of situations. Asking for one lightly was considered by some as tantamount to an assault, given the consequences if a typical oath were broken.

Seeing the reaction in her professor's face, Hermione hastened to add, "Please, Professor, we wouldn't think of asking for something like that unless we thought the situation was serious enough. But we'd be willing to go with a different option if you know of something that will provide us with similar assurances that our secrets will be protected."

Minerva's eyes widened a bit. _Miss Granger is normally quite level headed, but even she thinks that an oath might be justified? And what's this about_ _ **our**_ _secrets — I thought that the issue only involved Miss Potter. What could possibly be so serious that it concerns both of them and might need to be protected by a magical oath?_

The Scotswoman lifted her glass to take another drink, but found to her dismay that she had already finished it. It wouldn't do for her to get another, so she closed her eyes to think about the question. After a minute of silent thought, she looked back again at the two witches. "Only a magical contract would work as an alternative to a magical oath, but contracts are complicated and time consuming to create." The girls looked a little distressed at this, so she quickly continued, "However, I think I can formulate a magical oath that isn't made on my life or magic."

Once again, the two girls looked at each other, silently communicating. Hermione raised one eyebrow, _Do you think that will be acceptable?_ Jasmine frowned slightly, _I think so, but we'll have to see what the actual wording is._ Hermione smiled, _See, I told you it was a good idea to come here!_ Jasmine rolled her eyes, _Yeah, yeah, you're always right. I did agree to this, didn't I?_

Simultaneously, they turned back to their professor, seeing her eyes wide in amazement. _No words, but clearly a conversation,_ she realized. _That reminds me of how James and Lily would interact, but they didn't start doing that until after they left school and had gotten engaged. And of course they were... no, it's not important right now. We need to move forward with an oath._

"How about this?" Minerva began to write, _I vow to not reveal the secrets told to me this evening by Hermione Jean Granger and Jasmine Dorea Potter unless given permission by one of them to do so or until they both tell me that my oath is lifted._

She handed the piece of parchment over, saying, "I won't recite it aloud until you confirm that it is adequate. Breaking the oath won't kill me or take away my magic, but if I inadvertently start to violate it my magic will warn me, and if I continue it will hurt. The consequences shouldn't be permanent, but they will probably be unpleasant. The magic involved here is complicated, but since magic is all about intent, the consequences to me if I break the oath will be more intense the more sincere I am. After I am done, if you hold out your wands and touch mine while reciting, 'I accept your oath,' your own intent will be added to it, so you won't have to rely solely on trusting my intent."

After reading over the suggested oath, Hermione looked at Jasmine to gauge her reaction. She wouldn't go forward with this without Jasmine's complete agreement. The witch in question gave a sigh of relief and nodded her head. "Yes, that sounds like it would be perfect. I wasn't happy about putting you in any danger, but we didn't know of any other way of guaranteeing our privacy."

Minerva smiled. While she was disappointed to not have the trust of two of her favorite students, she was heartened to learn that even Jasmine, the most distrusting, didn't wish her ill at all. This gave her a lot of hope for the future — though that future clearly depended on what she could do to help them with whatever problem had brought them to her tonight.

Rising so they could stand facing each other at the side of the professor's desk, the three witches all recited their parts of the magical oath and witnessed a bright glow swell out between them, signalling that the oath had indeed been accepted by their magic. "Well," said Minerva after they had sat back down again, "that was a rather stronger than usual magical reaction — certainly stronger than I expected. It looks like I'll be in for a difficult time if I break my word to you. So what is it that was so important that we had to go through all this before coming to the point?"

Both witches reached out for each other's hand and, after a moment's pause, Jasmine looked directly into Minerva's eyes to ask the much-anticipated question: "Professor, how does magical society treat gays and lesbians?"

* * *

**A/N:** Some may feel that Jasmine's anger is a bit out of character. You'd be right, she is acting unusual. But something unusual started happening to her recently. Coincidence?

**A/N 2:** No, that's not telepathy from a soul bond. I'm sure you've read fics where characters are described as being able to have an entire conversation with just a couple of looks? Yeah, that's what's happening, except they are especially good at it. And they don't realize that it's odd.


	3. Revelations and Repression

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: More than one reader expressed concern about "Dumbledore bashing." I won't deny being entertained by stories where writers find all the ways he screwed up, but like with soul bonds, I'm using the cliche in a way that I think is a bit different — more three dimensional and less simplistic. He'll be an antagonist and an opponent, especially early on, but not evil. You may even find yourself sympathizing with him occasionally. Several popular cliches will be used in a similar way, in fact, so have a little patience, you may be surprised.
> 
> Recommendation: Story recommendation for this chapter is "More Important than Any Broomstick" by witowsmp. In third year, Harry realizes that Hermione is more important to him than his new broomstick and so chooses to stick with her rather than be mad at her.

**Thursday, December 10, 1994, Evening.**

Minerva McGonagall was desperately wishing that she hadn't already committed herself to not having a second drink in front of her students — or at least that she hadn't caved in so early and had the first already. Of all the things that these two witches might have come to her about, including many of the more obscure and unusual issues, she had never considered Hermione Granger and Jasmine Potter asking her about how homosexuality was viewed in the magical world.

That might be because it was an issue she herself had avoided thinking about for such a long, long time. It brought up a lot of memories, some grand but many painful.

Firmly shutting the door on the ghosts of her own past, Minerva tried to focus on the teen witches in front of her. Suddenly, a number of things started to make sense, including things she hadn't consciously noted before. Actions like holding hands and having a silent conversation she had earlier chalked up to them simply being particularly close friends, but now those actions acquired rather different connotations. Then there was the comment Jasmine made about "her Hermione" which Minerva had ignored.

Eyes flicking back and forth between the girls' faces, the aging professor started slowly, "So…some things are becoming clear to me, I think. How long has this been going on, then?"

"Well, only today, frankly..." Hermione began.

"Actually," Jasmine interjected, "I've known this about myself for a while, though I've tried to ignore it or repress it as much as possible. Ditto with my feelings specifically for Hermione. However, this morning I learned that not only was I required to attend a Yule Ball I have no interest in, but I'd have to bring a date — presumably a boy who I _also_ have no interest in." Minerva winced inwardly, recognizing the rebuke as rather justified now that she had more information.

"Basically, I had a panic attack — something that I hadn't gone through since before coming to Hogwarts, despite all the dangerous and scary things that have happened to me."

"I've been thinking about that, Jas." Hermione said, "I was worried about you because I hadn't seen a reaction like that from you before. It's because you didn't think I could accept it, wasn't it? Previously, whether you were facing dragons, dementors, basilisks, or whatever, you always felt that I was on your side, if not actually **at** your side. This time, though, you were convinced that you'd truly be alone. You feared that I might go so far as to abandon you, if I learned too much." Hermione leaned a bit closer, "I'm right, aren't I?"

Jasmine was staring down at her lap, unwilling to let anyone see the tears starting to form in her eyes. Sniffing, she said quietly, "Yeah." At that point, some of the crippling fear she'd experienced that morning came crashing back into her.

That was all Hermione needed to hear. Kneeling next to the chair, she pulled Jasmine into a hug, allowing the other girl to bury her head in Hermione's hair. Slowly rubbing her hand up and down the other girl's arm, Hermione whispered, "It's OK. I'm here and I'm not going anywhere. No matter what, I won't leave you."

If she'd had any doubts about what the girls were truly feeling, Minerva would have lost them all right there. This wasn't the sort of intimacy shared by girls who were experimenting or confused — and it was more than she'd expect to see between students who were simply friends. She'd long known that these two had an unusually close bond, but it had apparently morphed into something more serious without anyone realizing. _I wouldn't have thought they could get any closer, but clearly I was wrong_ , she mused. _I wonder how this will affect their day-to-day interactions?_

Minerva gave Jasmine a minute to get the emotions out of her system, but eventually she had to clear her throat to get their attention. "I'm sorry, but we do need to move forward if we're to accomplish anything before curfew. Clearly your questions weren't hypothetical. Just so there aren't any misunderstandings, you're both attracted to witches rather than to wizards, have recently entered into a romantic, intimate relationship, and are concerned about the consequences for how you will be treated in magical society?"

"Ummm…" Jasmine began.

"Almost," Hermione said. "Jasmine is attracted to witches, and me in particular. I... well, romance isn't something I've given much thought to. I assumed I was straight, at least to the extent that the question occurred to me; but after my conversation with Jasmine, I guess I'm reconsidering. I need to do a bit of soul-searching to figure out what I really feel."

Looking over at The Girl Who Lived, she continued, "I don't know what I think about witches or women in general, but I think I'm attracted to Jasmine. Attracted enough, at least, to give dating a try. I wouldn't say we're exactly 'intimate' since we've only kissed a couple of times," she added, flushing slightly, "but we are close. So we were thinking of going as a couple to the Yule Ball. That, though, depends on people's reactions. We've never seen any openly gay wizards or witches, and given the general amount of bigotry in magical society, we're concerned."

Minerva raised her eyebrows. _So close and in sync with each other,_ she thought to herself, _yet only just now starting a relationship that is still tentative, at least on Miss Granger's part. I can't imagine what they'll be like if and when their relationship solidifies._

Deciding to get this out of the way, Minerva said, "I'm afraid I don't have good news, although I doubt that comes as a surprise to either of you. Relationships between magicals of the same sex are tolerated, but only barely and only if those relationships are kept absolutely secret. Essentially, if no one is confronted with the reality of such a relationship, they are willing to continue with the polite fiction that such relationships don't exist. In truth, they know the relationships exist and in fact often know that certain friends have such relationships, but they pretend otherwise."

Hermione opened her mouth, then closed it again. "Yes, Miss Granger?" Minerva prompted.

"I... I think I saw something about that on the news," Hermione answered. "Not among magicals, but a muggle military somewhere. In the last year or so they adopted a new policy of... I think it was not asking if members were gay, and no one had to tell their superiors if they were gay. It replaced a policy of actively hunting gays down and kicking them out."

Minerva nodded her head in understanding. "I'm not surprised that something similar can be found elsewhere. It's an easy way to pretend to be tolerant while forcing people into hiding and then removing them when they can no longer hide."

She continued with her explanation, saying, "Unfortunately, when pretending is no longer possible, the consequences for those involved can be dire. At least there are no longer any laws that would see such people imprisoned, but the social ramifications are bad enough. They'll lose most if not all of their friends; those who refuse to participate in the shunning risk being shunned themselves. No jobs will be available, and those who do try to provide jobs will find their own positions at risk. Stores and shops which employ such people lose most if not all of their business, much like if they openly employ werewolves."

Minerva stopped for a few moments to let all of this sink in. The news she had given them could have been worse, but not by much. Being open about their relationship simply wouldn't be an option, she knew that all too well. "As you can see, going to the Yule Ball as a couple would not be wise. You, Miss Granger, would naturally suffer the most." The brunette witch started with surprise at hearing this.

"Yes, you should already be aware that you're at somewhat of a disadvantage because you're a muggleborn. The fact that you regularly outperform purebloods who believe that they have a birthright to being superior makes it worse. Your peers here at school will be your peers in any future working environment, and neither of you have many friends or admirers among them by this point. That's important because the British magical community is far too small to avoid people who know you or at least know of you."

"I expect you will have difficulties when you leave Hogwarts, though I hope that your high achievements will overcome some of your problems if you find the right field. Adding in a relationship like this, however," she gestured to the two of them, "will make you virtually unemployable and a near pariah in magical society."

Minerva looked grim as she continued, "I'm sorry to say, but you'd almost certainly have to return to the muggle world just to find work to survive. There, however, you would be burdened by a woefully inadequate education, because students who attend Hogwarts have little chance to keep up with muggle schooling as well. So while you would be able to get work, it would not be work that is well-suited to your innate abilities or aspirations."

Jasmine frowned. "Would my experience really be that different?" she asked. "I may not start with all the same issues, but wouldn't the end result be pretty much the same? Surely being the Girl Who Lived wouldn't change something that serious?"

Somewhat taken aback by the question, Minerva responded, "No, not at all. To be sure, you'd also end up virtually unemployable, but you'd at least have your family's money, investments, and property to fall back upon. You wouldn't be accepted very well by society, however the Potter name should make up for a little of that, and you'd have enough resources that you wouldn't have to leave magical society simply to survive. Whether you'd want to stay or leave would be another question, of course."

At this, Jasmine's frown deepened and she was quickly joined by Hermione, who asked, "Money? Investments? What do you mean by that? Jasmine hasn't been told anything about any of that, have you?"

"No," the auburn-haired teen said tightly, clearly having trouble maintaining a hold on her anger. "Dumbledore again, right? What did I ever do to him to make him hate me so much…?"

"Oh, dear," sighed Minerva softly. "This is clearly something we're going to have to talk about at some point. I honestly never got the impression that he hated you; quite the contrary, in fact. However, I will obviously have to reconsider a lot of his decisions with regards to you. Suffice it to say, yes, you **should** have reasonable economic resources, even if it isn't all available until you are older. Yes, you **should** have heard something about it by now, even if not all the details. And, yes, it **should** go a long way to cushion any social blow created by a public revelation of your orientation. But we'll have to wait until later to talk further about all that. Right now, our immediate concern is the Yule Ball, yes?"

Both teen witches looked like they wanted to pursue this new issue, but they grudgingly conceded that it wasn't the priority right now.

"Very well, I think you'll agree that going to the Yule Ball as a couple would not be a good idea. Whether you're willing to accept the consequences or not, you're not yet at a point where you fully understand what those consequences will be or how you'll deal with them. You aren't even at a point yet where you fully understand your own relationship. Discretion and secrecy would be the best path right now."

It was clear to Minerva that neither of the younger witches were happy about this, but she had made her point about the ramifications of their relationship becoming public, and they acquiesced. "Have you given any thought to alternative plans? I'm afraid that I can't let you out of going to the Yule Ball. Well, short of a serious illness or injury that strikes you at the last minute — and I suspect that that would come under close scrutiny even if you were to do such a good acting job in advance that the whole school is convinced that you can't wait to attend."

Hermione decided to answer, knowing that Jasmine would need a little time to get her emotions under control, "Yes, we discussed a couple of alternatives. Jasmine going with a boy whom we trust is one option, particularly if we can trust him enough with our secret — after an oath, of course. We'd probably use the oath you created, since it's safer."

Minerva looked thoughtful at that. "I think that's probably your best option. I know how hard it will be to reveal your secret to someone else, but the benefits of a fellow student knowing will probably outweigh the risks. You'll find it hard to keep your new relationship hidden, but the help of a fellow student who is with you day after day will prove more useful than the help of a staff member like me. Can I ask whom you have in mind? Mr. Ronald Weasley, perhaps?"

"No!" Jasmine said, almost shouting and surprising the other two with the vehemence of her response. Looking a bit sheepish over having let the emotions of the previous topic carry over, she continued, "Look, I'll admit that he and I are better now than we were a month ago, but his reaction to my name coming out of the Triwizard Cup still hurts, and I haven't completely forgiven him. So I don't completely trust him, either — he's working on getting closer to me again, but it will be a while yet."

"And quite frankly," she said with a sigh, "even if things were as good as they were a year ago, I don't think I'd be willing to go on a fake date with him. Have you seen him eat?"

Hermione shivered and Minerva closed her eyes in sympathy. Both were well aware of the eating habits that the youngest Weasley boy demonstrated sometimes, and neither relished the prospect of trying to endure a nice dinner in his vicinity.

"More important, though," she continued, "is the fact that he has a tendency to blurt out whatever he's thinking, however inappropriate or hurtful. You should hear some of the things he's said to Hermione when they're arguing. I don't know that I'd ever trust him to be able to keep this to himself, even with an oath."

"The one person I can honestly think of trusting that much, with or without an oath, is Neville Longbottom. We aren't as close as I'd like to be for this, but we have gotten a lot closer recently because of his support and help in this tournament, and I think we'll keep getting closer over time." Hermione agreed with this wholeheartedly.

Minerva thought for a moment, then nodded, "Yes, I think he is a good choice. It's unfortunate that you probably haven't been made aware of this, but the Potter and Longbottom families have a longstanding tradition of working together. Mr. Longbottom lacks confidence, from what I've observed, but I think he has it in him to be a good friend — and hopefully a strong wizard." With a long-suffering glance heavenward, she added, "Eventually."

Jasmine was torn between happiness over the the revelation about the Longbottoms and annoyance that she hadn't known already.

Minerva continued, "I think we've accomplished all we can for tonight. It's getting late, and if your options for possible dates truly are so limited, you would be wise to talk to Mr. Longbottom before he decides to attend the ball with someone else. I'd recommend talking to him tonight, if at all possible — you should have enough time before curfew, if you hurry."

Looking at the nearby clock, both witches silently agreed to do exactly that. As they started for the door, however, their professor held up her hand to stop them. "Before you leave, I'd like to make it clear that I, personally, do not share the prejudices so prevalent in the rest of our society. I intend to advise and help you not merely because I wish to earn the trust I've lost, but also because I think it's the right thing to do. To be honest, I've long thought that you two have made a remarkable team as friends, particularly with the way you support each other, and I think that you will be more remarkable still if your relationship grows beyond mere friendship. If there is anything I can do to help or protect you, I will."

Jasmine and Hermione were shocked at this unalloyed statement of support, coming as it did from their normally undemonstrative professor. Stammering out their thanks, they rushed out of the office to go find Neville.

Once they were gone, Minerva sat lost in thought for a time, remembering missed opportunities and the shortsightedness of youth. With a shake of her head, she brushed something that might have been a tear from her eye and got up to return to her own quarters.

* * *

Racing along the empty stone corridors to get back to the Gryffindor common room, Jasmine Potter reflected on what she and Hermione had just been told by their head of house. She had suffered quite a few shocks from all the revelations, but at the moment it was Professor McGonagall's parting words that stuck out the most: they were and would be a remarkable couple because of how well they supported each other.

Jasmine wanted to think that this was true, she really did; but as the two of them ran she realized, much to her dismay, that it wasn't true at all. _Sure_ , she thought to herself, _Hermione has supported me in lots of ways, but have I done the same? When was the last time I went out of my way to support or help her like she did for me just this morning?_

Skidding to a halt, she almost caused Hermione to fall. Instead of answering the questioning look she received, Jasmine simply pulled her into the closest empty classroom. Hermione had no idea what was going on, but didn't hesitate to cast her silencing and privacy charms on the door. When she turned back to her friend, she saw that she was almost in tears. "Jasmine! What's wrong?" she asked desperately.

"Hermione, I am so sorry. I've only now started to realize how bad of a friend I've been compared to you. McGonagall was wrong in saying that we support each other. You certainly support me — what you did for me this morning proves that — but I don't do nearly enough to support you. Then there are times when I hurt you, like the broomstick incident last year! I... I... I've been horrible!"

"Oh, Jasmine!" Hermione couldn't take it anymore and simply wrapped her friend in an embrace. She smiled a little, pleased that Jasmine cared enough to finally recognize and apologize for some of her flaws, but she needed to help the green-eyed girl understand that matters hadn't been nearly as bad as she evidently feared. And anyway, with Jasmine's background, who could blame her if emotional support didn't come effortlessly to her? In fact, Hermione worried a little that this might be one of those things that had to be learned by some critical age or it would never be learned properly at all. Now, though, was not the time for that sort of conversation.

"Jas," she said as she pulled back, "thank you for caring enough to say all that, but it's not nearly as bad as you make it out. I've been hurt a couple of times, but it's not like you're abusive or anything. You're not like Ron, at least, who often says things that hurt me. You do have some room for improvement, and we'll talk about that later; but for now, don't beat yourself up over it."

Despite her words, Jasmine didn't look particularly reassured. Biting her bottom lip in thought for a moment, Hermione continued, "In fact, I suppose I should make a confession about that broomstick incident. I had hoped to never say anything, but if you're going to keep torturing yourself over it, I suppose I'm going to have to."

Jasmine felt confused, not sure what Hermione could possibly have to confess.

"You and Ron got mad at me and stopped talking to me after I told Professor McGonagall about the broomstick. You feel bad about that, and, while it would have been nice if you had handled it better, I honestly didn't expect you to. You behaved exactly like I figured you would. Ron, too."

Letting go of her friend, Hermione sat at a nearby desk before resuming her explanation. "Once I saw that broomstick and realized what sort of danger it might pose, I had two options. The first option — the one that a good friend would have taken — was to talk to you first, and then only go to McGonagall if you refused to see reason. A good friend, a true friend, would have trusted you to see reason and do the right thing. Friends trust each other and have faith in each other. But I didn't do that. Do you want to know why?"

Jasmine was even more confused now. It sounded like Hermione was confessing to being a bad friend, but she couldn't imagine anyone being a **better** friend than her.

"I didn't do it because I was scared," Hermione continued. "I knew that if I went to McGonagall, you'd be mad, but I was certain that if I went to McGonagall **after** talking to you first, you'd be even madder — you'd see it as an even greater betrayal. I was afraid that if it came to that, you'd be far less likely to forgive me and resume our friendship. So I chose the option that represented being a worse friend, but gave me the best chance of not permanently losing my only friends. You know that I didn't have any real friends before Hogwarts, and the prospect of losing the only ones I'd ever known was truly frightening."

Taking a deep, shuddering breath as she tried hard not to cry, she finished off by saying, "I'll have you know, though, that I don't regret what I did and I wouldn't change it. As scared as I was of possibly losing my only friends, I was far more scared of you being killed by a cursed broomstick. I'd rather you hate me and be alive than die while still my friend."

Jasmine's emotions were all mixed up by now. As bad as she had thought the broomstick incident was, in some ways it was worse. Not only had she shunned her first and best friend over a disagreement about a piece of wood, but she had actually forced that friend to calculate what was more important: a friend lost or a friend dying. For an insecure girl who didn't have real friends before Hogwarts, giving up her only two friends would have been a huge sacrifice.

For some reason, though, Hermione was willing to forgive her. Reaching out and pulling her friend up into an embrace, she spoke softly into her bushy hair. "I'm so sorry I forced you into even considering such a choice. You're wrong, though, you know — the second option was the one that represented real friendship. Because when you picked it, you were consciously putting my life ahead of your own interests. You chose me over everything else, just like I promise I'll always choose you."

Both girls started to sob a bit after that, until Jasmine shook her head and tried to pull herself together. She was never this emotional and had no idea where this behavior was coming from, but she chose to focus on Hermione instead of that. Hermione said that she hadn't behaved as badly as she thought, she told herself firmly, and if Hermione said she was fine, then that would be good enough for her. "OK, if you're sure, then we'll talk about this later. We'd better get going and find Neville, though. I'm sorry for crying all over you."

With a deep breath of her own, Hermione smiled. "No worries, Jas. We'll be fine." Taking her hand, Hermione undid the spells on the door, and the two were off running again in search of a certain Gryffindor herbologist.


	4. I Get By with a Little Help From My Friends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: It's been pointed out that the conversation with McGonagall is similar to the one early in muggledad's story "The End and the Beginning." Since that's one of my favorite stories and he's one of my favorite writers, it's entirely possible that I was influenced unconsciously. It was not a deliberate imitation, but I'll use this opportunity to make that the recommended story for this chapter.

**Thursday, December 10, 1994, Late Evening.**

Racing up to the portrait guarding the Gryffindor common room, Hermione gave the password, and the two witches stepped quietly into the room, looking everywhere in the hope that Neville Longbottom was there and that they wouldn't have to go hunting for him elsewhere. Luck was with them because they saw him at a corner table working on something, but then they noticed a problem: he was with Ginny Weasley.

"What do we do, Hermione?" Jasmine asked. "We can't say that we need to do something for the tournament because Ginny wants to help, but I don't want to tell her the truth." Hermione thought hard for a minute, then had an idea. "I'll distract Ginny with some excuse, getting her away from Neville; after we're gone, you take him to the room we work in."

"That's a good idea, Hermione, but it'll be a great idea with one small change."

"What?" she asked, a little annoyed.

"We switch places: I'll distract Ginny while you fetch Neville."

"How is that an improvement?" Hermione demanded.

"Like you said this morning, you can't lie well, so you won't do as well creating a diversion. Here, take the Marauder's Map so you can be certain that the corridor is clear when you get Neville to our room. Wish me luck..."

"Wait," Hermione said, reaching out to put her hand on Jasmine's arm, "How are you going to distract Ginny?"

"I dunno," Jasmine shrugged.

"You don't know?" Hermione practically hissed. "How can you march over there without knowing what you're going to do?" She didn't believe for a second that this was any kind of improvement on her idea — what if Ginny refused to be distracted? What if someone else came and sat down? What if Neville got suspicious? What was Plan B?!

"It's simple, Hermione. I always think best on my feet. Well, except when I'm on a broom." Jasmine then gave Hermione her lopsided grin. "Trust me."

Usually that grin merely caused Hermione to roll her eyes in exasperation because it meant that Jasmine was about to do something dangerous or stupid — especially when coupled with "Trust me." Now, for some strange reason, it made her weak in the knees, and she almost forgot what she was supposed to do. It wasn't until she noticed Ginny walking away with Jasmine that Hermione got her bearings again.

Taking the long way around the common room so Ginny wouldn't notice her, she rushed over to Neville and spoke in fast, low tones. "Neville, come quick! Jasmine and I have something really, really important to talk to you about but we can't do it here — and we want to get it done tonight before curfew. Please? You're the only one we trust with this."

Neville was confused at first and reluctant to wander off — he still had a bunch of work to get done before he could go to bed. After Hermione's declaration of trust, though, he didn't hesitate to start packing up his parchment. He was far more accustomed to being looked down upon as a near-squib by most people, and even the recent weeks of occasionally joining Hermione to help Jasmine prepare for the first task of the Triwizard Tournament hadn't gone far to change that. But faith like this couldn't be ignored. "Sure, I'll come," he said as he packed, "but what about Jasmine — she just walked off with Ginny."

"Don't worry about that, Jasmine is distracting Ginny so we can talk to you alone. You'll understand later, I promise." Now Neville was even more confused, but he didn't stop packing and quietly followed Hermione out of the common room.

When Ginny returned a few minutes later, she was surprised to find that Neville and all his things were gone. She looked around the common room but couldn't see any trace of him. She had been hoping that he might ask her to the Yule Ball, but that wouldn't happen if they didn't spend enough time together so that he could start seeing her as possible dating material. With a disappointed sigh, she sat down again to get back to work on her Astronomy essay.

* * *

After checking the map and seeing that the halls around them were empty, Hermione walked quickly down the seventh floor corridor and into the abandoned classroom the three of them had used to train for the tournament. As Hermione tried to close the door, though, it seemed to smack into something invisible. "Wha—?!"

Suddenly, Jasmine's disembodied head was floating in the doorway. "Ow! Careful there..."

"Sorry, Jas, I forgot that you aren't visible on the map when you're wearing that cloak."

Once the three Gryffindors were seated, Neville turned to Jasmine to say, "So what's going on?"

While Hermione pulled out a piece of parchment and started writing, Jasmine explained the situation. "There's something we need your help with, but it's a huge secret. Aside from the two of us, only one other person in the world knows, and she's taken a magical oath to protect the secret. I'm sorry, but we're going to need an oath from you, too. We wouldn't ask if it weren't incredibly important."

Neville swallowed hard. "An... an oath? I ne-need to swear on my magic or my life?"

Hermione handed him the parchment she was writing on. "No, Neville, this is a simpler oath that amounts to making a strong magical promise. Breaking the promise will cause discomfort or maybe pain, depending on how sincere you are when you make your promise, but you won't die or lose your magic. Our secret is important, but we aren't that cruel."

Neville read the oath on the parchment and calmed down considerably. He hadn't realized that you could make a magical oath like this and wondered where the girls had learned about it. "You're sure that an oath like this is magically valid? I've never seen one like it."

"Yes, Neville," Jasmine responded. "We've seen it done and have an absolutely reliable source for how safe it is. You'll need to wait a moment after taking the oath, however, so we can magically accept it. That will add our intentions to the oath and reinforce your own intention to be sincere in your promise."

Standing up, Neville squared his shoulders and pulled out his wand — even with the oath, he wasn't used to people trusting him this much and he wasn't going to let them down. Jasmine reflected on how much Neville had changed since their first year. _Where's the timid little firstie who was always stuttering?_ she wondered, but then reconsidered. That same little firstie also challenged his only three friends to keep them from leaving the common room after curfew — even going so far as threatening to fight them. _Maybe it's not so much that Neville has changed, but that he's starting to see and use what was always inside him. With a little support, he could become a formidable wizard indeed..._

In a few minutes, the oath was complete and Neville was back in his chair, ready to learn what this important secret was. At least, he **thought** he was ready.

"There's no way to ease you into this, Neville, so I'm going to be blunt," Jasmine began. "I need to warn you up front, though, that you may not like us much when I'm done. If you don't want to be associated with us anymore, we'll understand, but we'll expect you to keep our secrets anyway. OK?"

Neville was curious, to say the least. He couldn't imagine Hermione and Jasmine doing anything that would cause him to want to turn his back on them. He wanted to tell them that, but before he could find his voice, Jasmine was already talking again, explaining the momentous events of the day: the panic attack, the kiss, the meeting with McGonagall — all of it. She ended with McGonagall's revelations about how badly magical society treats couples like them.

Neville was gobsmacked. He just sat there and gaped at them, looking a bit like a fish, if truth be told. Of all the things he might have imagined them telling him, this wouldn't have been anywhere on the list. Fortunately the two witches were patient with him, knowing that they had just laid on him a lot of heavy news that he'd need to think about.

After a long moment, and still unsure about what to say, Neville decided to start with something easy. "So, you're girlfriend and... uh, girlfriend?"

"Yes," said Jasmine. "No," said Hermione in unison.

They looked at each other for a second, then back to Neville.

"No...?" said Jasmine. "Yes...?" said Hermione, again simultaneously.

They turned back to each other. "What?" they both chorused.

That broke the tension in the room, and Neville started laughing. He had become used to the two of them acting in a manner that seemed almost choreographed — he'd never before seen two people so in sync with one another. Now, they were in sync even when at cross-purposes.

Hermione huffed, not sure herself which of the two she was most annoyed at. "Honestly, Jasmine, you may have confessed your feelings for me, and we may have kissed, but you haven't actually _asked_ me to be your girlfriend — and since you started all of this, it should be up to you to do the asking. I think it's rather presumptuous of you to simply assume that we're 'together' somehow."

Thoroughly chastened, Jasmine's eyes started darting back and forth as she tried to figure out how to proceed. Hermione simply crossed her arms and sat back in a prim manner, obviously waiting for something. Unfortunately, Jasmine had absolutely no experience with such matters. Since the Dursleys had denied her any opportunity to watch TV or movies while growing up, she never developed any sort of mental model of what dating should be like, much less how to ask someone to be her girlfriend.

Finally, she latched on to a half-remembered reference that seemed vaguely appropriate. She wasn't sure if she had heard Petunia mention it while gossipping on the phone or if perhaps she heard it on the telly while listening through the tiny grate on the door of her cupboard. Not having any better ideas, she got down on one knee in front of the brightest witch of the age, and said, "Hermione, my love, would you do me the very great honor of marrying me?"

Hermione's eyes bugged out as she slapped her hand over her mouth, not trusting what she might inadvertently say to that question. Neville thought he might hurt himself trying not to burst out laughing. He was pretty sure that this might turn into a sweet moment at some point, and didn't want to ruin it for them.

Jasmine suddenly recognized her error and quickly amended, "No! No, I mean, would you be my **girlfriend**?" Hermione finally snorted in amusement and answered, "Yes — to the second question, at least. You'll need to wait a while before asking me the first again."

Neville finally got himself under control, though for the life of him he couldn't wipe the grin off his face. "OK, so I guess you two finally have that sorted. You're officially girlfriend and girlfriend now. What's next?"

Noticing the smile on his face, Hermione asked, "You're not bothered by this, Neville? We were told that this is looked down upon in magical society, at least when revealed openly rather than kept secret. People are shunned, they lose friends and family, they can't get jobs. Granted, we are trying to keep it secret, at least for now, but I'd have expected you to be a bit bothered by it."

Neville became more serious when he answered, "Well, it does seem more than a bit odd to me, and I don't know exactly how comfortable I'll be with it. You're right that such couples aren't treated well, especially among purebloods, and probably in large part because you can't produce an heir without a man. But don't forget that I've been watching you two together for over three years now, even if we haven't been close until this year. You may not have been an actual couple before today, but you have definitely been a team, and you've had a connection unlike any I've ever seen with anyone else, including dating couples. So the idea of you two adding dating to your activities... well, you've certainly done odder things while here at Hogwarts. I guess dating seems like one of your more normal and natural adventures."

Jasmine merely stared out at nothing upon hearing that. "Huh," she said, "he's got a point. What's more unnatural: two witches dating, or a dark lord growing out of the back of someone's head? What's more bizarre: two witches kissing, or a student fighting a millennium-old basilisk, alone, underneath a school?"

"I'll confess to being uneasy with all of them," Neville said, "but if given a choice, I'd rather stumble across witches kissing in the school corridors than stumble across a basilisk. Or a possessed professor. If nothing else, I think I can at least get used to the first. I'll need a bit of time, though."

For her part, Hermione almost seemed disappointed that revealing the secret went so well. _She probably had a long list of arguments and counter-arguments ready to go, and now she's annoyed that they'll go to waste_ , Jasmine thought with a private smile.

"So, has Professor McGonagall offered to help you?" Neville asked.

"Yes," Jasmine answered. "I was reluctant to go to her because of how she's treated me in the past, but she created the oath and willingly took it. She also seemed to start seeing how her actions in the past have been wrong."

"I was surprised," Hermione added. "My faith in her dropped when Jasmine and I discussed everything, but I'm feeling more optimistic now."

Neville nodded and said, "I've not been too happy with her either, but it sounds like maybe she'll be changing. I'd like that a lot. So what now?"

"Well," Hermione continued, "the 'what now' is the Yule Ball, which we need to deal with. Like we said, Jasmine is required to have a date so she can open the ball with a dance. Obviously there aren't any boys she wants to go on a date with, and she can't have me as her date. So we need someone to go with her: someone she's comfortable with, someone she trusts, someone who is willing to go as a friend rather than as a boyfriend, and perhaps someone who is aware of our secret. Do you know anyone like that, Neville?"

He started to think hard and ran through a list of possible candidates before the truth hit him, and he noticed both witches' lips were twitching. "Oh? Oh! You'd like **me** to...?"

"Yes, Neville." Jasmine responded. "I know it's an imposition, because it means you wouldn't be able to have a real date with a girl you fancy and who fancies you back. Since I can't go with exactly such a girl myself, I understand how disappointing that is. But there isn't another boy in Hogwarts that I'd rather go with. There's no other boy here that I trust more than you."

"And there's certainly no other boy in Hogwarts that I'd trust more with my new girlfriend," Hermione added with a grin.

Jasmine grinned back at her before asking, "So, would you go to the Yule Ball with me?"

As before, Neville didn't hesitate. Rising from his chair, he straightened up to his full height and said, "I think that's my line, actually." He then bowed at the waist before Jasmine and stated, "My dear Miss Potter, would you do me the honor of accompanying me to the Yule Ball this year?"

Smiling, Jasmine stood herself and curtsied before responding, "Dear Mr. Longbottom, I'm flattered that you asked, and I'd be honored to accompany you to the ball."

Everyone laughed and sat back down, but they turned serious again when Hermione continued. "Thank you, Neville, this means a lot to both of us. And thank you for treating this like a real date. Of course, people should know that you two are only going as friends, but we don't want anyone to suspect that there are any other motives at work. So the more seriously the date is treated, the better."

"You can count on me," Neville said. "My gran made certain that I was taught all the proper customs and practices for this kind of event, so I know what to do. All the traditionalists will look at the two of us, Jasmine, and see exactly what they expect to see. They shouldn't have any cause to give your relationship with Hermione a second thought."

Jasmine's eyes widened. "Hey, Neville, maybe Hermione and I should learn some of those customs and practices, too. Oh! And dancing! We **so** need to learn how to dance! As a champion I have to help open the ball, remember, so everyone will be focused on you and me dancing. We need to do at least a halfway decent job in order to not become the laughingstock of the tournament."

That sobered everyone up quickly as they pondered how to proceed. "I've learned how to dance formal dances, but it's been a while since I've had to do any of it," Neville admitted.

"I've had a few dance lessons," Hermione added, "but I didn't continue them for long, and it's been a few years." Jasmine, of course, didn't know the first thing about dancing and remained silent.

"Let's do it this way," Hermione suggested, taking charge in her customary manner. "Neville, you and I will practice dancing together until we can get reasonably comfortable with it. We both know a bit, so working together we should be able to make progress in a relatively short period of time. We won't be able to teach Jasmine very well unless we know what we're doing, so we won't start working with her until you and I are both better. Fortunately the man leads, so the female partner has a bit less to do." Everyone agreed to that as well as lessons from Neville on social traditions and etiquette in magical society, in particular those relating to balls and formal events.

Nothing more could be done that night, however, because they were already running late and needed to get back to their common room before curfew. None of them slept well that night, each dealing in different ways with a myriad of new ideas and difficult problems that they'd be facing — and there were only fifteen days until the Yule Ball!

* * *

**Friday, December 11, 1994, Morning.**

Getting through History of Magic was tough on the best of days, which was why most people used the class as nap time; but trying to get through it first thing in the morning after having had little sleep the night before was absolute murder. And murder was exactly what Jasmine Potter had on her mind when she looked to her left at Hermione Granger.

Sure, she fancied the bushy-haired witch, but it was _her_ fault that Jasmine hadn't gotten much sleep the night before, and it was also _her_ fault that she couldn't use this time to nap. All the way back in first year, after they had become friends, Hermione had poked and prodded her new friend to get her to stay awake through Professor Binns' insomnia-curing lectures. Jasmine must have felt something even then for the other girl, because anyone else she'd have simply told off. Instead, she tried to be the sort of witch that Hermione respected, and as a result, she committed herself to staying awake right alongside Hermione.

It was a decision she frequently regretted, but never more so than this morning. Even Hermione looked half-asleep, so why was Jasmine trying so hard too...

***POKE!***

"Wha? Huh?" Jasmine half-shouted as she shot awake in her seat, not entirely aware of where she was or what happened.

"Jasmine," Hermione hissed from next to her, "I can't believe you fell asleep during class! You haven't done that since first year. What's the matter with you? Don't you have any respect for our professor?"

Jasmine was about ready to cry at that point, but then class abruptly ended, and the other students started to come awake and gather up their things to leave. It occurred to Jasmine that she seemed to have lost quite a bit of time. _Why didn't Hermione wake me up right away?_ wondered Jasmine. _What would cause her to miss the fact that I was snoring and drooling? Unless..._

Glaring at her auburn-haired girlfriend as she gathered her books, Hermione was trying hard to look innocent. Too innocent, Jasmine decided — Hermione really was a terrible liar. "You dozed off too, didn't you?" Jasmine accused.

Hermione sniffed. "I don't know what you're talking about," she insisted cooly. "I need to do a little research in the library, are you coming?" Without waiting for an answer, she walked out of the classroom with her head up high. Her gait, however, wasn't nearly as confident as it usually was.

Jasmine **knew** she was right. She'd simply have to wait until the right time to use this information...

Yawning again, Jasmine once more lamented not having gotten enough sleep the night before. It was going to be a _long_ day, and if she fell asleep in the library in front of Hermione, getting a poke in the side would be the least of her worries. Libraries were practically holy sites for the bossy little witch, and woe betide any infidel who desecrated them with drool.

* * *

As it happened, Jasmine wasn't given a chance to drool all over any books in the library, because Hermione didn't intend for them to be working separately on various assignments. Instead, her plan was to sit Jasmine down and have a discussion about the green-eyed witch's temper. Luckily, they were able to get Hermione's customary — and isolated — table where they weren't likely to be overheard.

"Jasmine," Hermione started, "I know you probably don't want to talk about this, but it's becoming an issue. I've seen you angry quite a few times over the past three years, but your reaction to Malfoy's insults yesterday was much worse than I'm used to. I don't know if it's because of... well, you know, what's happened, or if it's something else. But we need to get a handle on it before it gets you into serious trouble."

Hermione was right, she didn't want to talk about this. She didn't like talking about her feelings, any of her feelings. At least, that was her typical attitude. Yesterday, though, she'd managed to open up to Hermione about some feelings that she had tried hard to keep buried. _Maybe I'm changing_? she wondered. _Maybe Hermione is changing me? I suppose I should at least try. If I can tell Hermione that I fancy her, I suppose I can manage this much._

Sighing, Jasmine answered. "You're right, I did feel a lot angrier yesterday than I usually do when the ferret insults one of us. I honestly can't tell you why, though. One second I was fine, the next I was annoyed, and then right after that it felt like this red mist descended over everything. I'm pretty sure that if you hadn't stopped me, I'd have marched over there firing hexes and curses — and I mean some of the nastier ones you and I have been learning, too."

Nodding at this confession, Hermione continued, "That's what I thought. And it took a bit for you to get calmed down again, too. I suspect that once you get that angry, it will be difficult for you to stop yourself. This means we need to find a way to insert some sanity into your thinking before your emotions get that far. Sounds like we only have a window of a second or two." The last was said with a slight smile, but both witches knew that it wasn't a laughing matter.

"What do you suggest?" Jasmine asked.

"Well," Hermione said as she started to slip into "professor mode," "Violence is obviously never the solution..."

"Hold on," Jasmine interjected, holding up one hand. "That I don't agree with. I'll agree that it's a risky solution. I'll agree that it's a solution that comes with heavy costs and can create new problems. I will not, however, agree that it is _never_ the solution. Quite the contrary, in fact: sometimes it is the _only_ solution because sometimes people refuse to stop what they are doing unless you get violent about it."

Frowning, Hermione objected, "Since when?" As usual, Hermione didn't take it well when people disagreed with her about something she considered obvious — it had proven to be a stubborn character flaw to overcome.

Leaning in, Jasmine said in a stage whisper, "Psst, Hermione — it's me, Jasmine." At Hermione's rolled eyes, she continued more normally, "Seriously, have you looked at my life lately? When all these awful things are coming after me, am I just supposed to ask them nicely to stop? In the last few years alone, I've been attacked by a troll, a three-headed dog, a pack of giant spiders, a basilisk, dementors, a dragon, a psychotic tree..."

Hermione interrupted, "Well, that was self-defense, wasn't it? Of course you have to defend yourself against monsters and magical creatures. But humans — you shouldn't use violence against humans."

"...a Death Eater, a possessed teacher trying to kill me," Jasmine continued, undeterred, "an insane professor trying to obliviate me, a professor turned werewolf, Voldemort — twice." She paused, considering. "Well, maybe he only counts as one and a half — have to think about that..."

"Students!" Hermione interjected a little desperately. "You shouldn't use violence against other students!"

Jasmine cocked an eyebrow. "This, from the girl who decked Malfoy at the end of last year? Which I still say was absolutely brilliant, by the way." Hermione had the grace to look embarrassed.

Sighing, Jasmine relented. "I'm sorry, Hermione — my life is a dangerous place."

Hermione slumped in her seat at that response. Clearly this issue wasn't as straightforward as she had always been taught. "OK, I'll grant that violence is sometimes necessary. But you have to try to set that sort of solution aside and work on other options when you can. There are times when you need to avoid violence, _especially_ in a school."

"Right," Jasmine nodded sagely. "Explore non-violent options first. **Then** embrace the violence."

Narrowing her eyes, Hermione said in an exasperated tone, "That's not _quite_ how I would put it, but I suppose that's the best I'll get out of you right now. So what sorts of responses can you use instead of hexes and curses?"

Jasmine tapped her chin in mock-concentration for a moment, then she brightened and announced cheerfully, "I know — insults!"

"What? You want to lower yourself to Malfoy's level, tossing childish insults across the hall? Aside from making you no better than him, you know that Professor Snape will use that as an excuse to take points and issue detentions. What's more, no one will sympathize with you very much."

Jasmine's smile didn't diminish as she explained, "Ah, but I don't mean just any old insults, Hermione. I mean **better** insults!"

"I'm afraid I don't follow," Hermione responded with a mix of confusion and annoyance on her face.

"I'll insult them in ways that don't sound like insults! I'll imply things that are nasty, but not make any overt accusations. If I do it right, I can't be punished because I haven't said anything bad."

That made Hermione stop and look thoughtful for a long moment. "Alright, you've got a point. Words are better than violent spells. If your words aren't overtly insulting, you won't look bad and you won't get punished. If Malfoy and his ilk interpret your words the way you intend, though, it will be a successful retaliation."

Jasmine beamed at the praise, but Hermione wasn't quite done. "I honestly think that it would be better to simply turn and walk away — to not give them the satisfaction of even responding. However, even I'm not naive enough to think that that will always work. With Malfoy, not reacting may encourage him to find worse things to say in order to get the reaction he wants. Your idea might do the same, too. But it's worth trying. If nothing else, thinking up something clever to say may distract you from becoming a green-eyed rage monster."

Jasmine wasn't sure if she was still being praised or not, but decided to take it positively. She then proceeded to ignore her homework in favor of coming up with a selection of subtle zingers to use against bigots like Malfoy. Thinking on one's feet was all very well, she reflected, but some insults were worth the extra effort.


	5. Social Lessons Begin

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: No, this is not a Ron bashing story, even though things don't start out well for him. He'll need time to grow up and mature.
> 
> Recommendation: This chapter's recommended story is "White Knight, Grey Queen," by Jeconais. There aren't many Harry/Pansy fics, but this is an interesting story with a good example of the pairing. "Fan Fic Authors-Net" (no spaces, replace the dash with a dot).

**Friday, December 11, 1994, Lunch.**

As Jasmine and Hermione were walking into the Great Hall for lunch, once again a familiar and detested voice rang out loud and clear from the Slytherin table, "Hey, scarhead, have you managed to buy yourself a date for the Yule Ball yet? If you need a loan, I'm sure someone can help." _Of course there isn't any response coming from the teachers,_ Jasmine thought. _In fact, Snape almost looks happy about Malfoy's dig._

As with the last time Malfoy decided to toss out insults at lunch, Jasmine could almost feel her blood begin to boil. She was filled with desire to lash out and start breaking bones, but she remembered the conversation she'd just had with Hermione about controlling her anger. Well, from Hermione's perspective it was about controlling her anger; from Jasmine's perspective, it was about coming up with ways to strike back against her antagonists without getting into trouble. _Toh-may-toh, toh-mah-toh._

This didn't mean _not_ resorting to bone-breaking curses, it only meant _not starting out_ with bone-breaking curses. In public. In full view of multiple members of the Hogwarts staff. That was what Gryffindors do, but the Sorting Hat had originally wanted to place her in Slytherin. So, fine, she'd open with Slytherin tactics. She couldn't deny that it infuriated _her_ when she was on the receiving end of insults. _Time to see how Malfoy likes a taste of his own medicine..._

"As a matter of fact, Mr. Malfoy, I do have a date for the ball," Jasmine answered sweetly. "A delightful gentleman asked me only last night, not many hours after the ball was first announced. I'm looking forward to attending this event with such a handsome and cultured escort." Turning her attention to the Slytherin girl sitting next to Draco, she added, "Don't worry, Miss Parkinson, I'm optimistic that someone may yet invite you. Perhaps even a gentlemen of at least a little refinement and culture." She gave Draco a measuring glance before twisting the knife: "But it's probably best not to get your hopes up too high. Beggars can't be choosers, after all."

With Hermione trying to hold in her sniggers by her side, Jasmine continued on to the Gryffindor table with regal dignity. Neville took a seat across from the two witches and exclaimed, "Merlin, where did that come from? I think Malfoy and Parkinson are still speechless."

"Sounds like a first to me, I can't remember that ever happening," said Hermione as she dished food onto her plate. "Maybe he's making plans to write to his father to complain." She then stole a quick glance up at the head table. "Professor Snape looks fit to be tied — I guess he can't think of any way to spin that into an excuse to dock us points."

"I'm surprised he didn't try anyway," Jasmine muttered. Despite having chosen to use words instead of spells, it was clear that she wasn't any less angry. "Snape is a petty, snivelling bully who is far too interested in protecting Draco when he's also being a petty, snivelling bully. Two peas in a pod. Draco is on a direct path to grow up to be just like either his father or Snape. Or both. Unless something or someone snaps him back — **hard** — and forces him to understand that might doesn't make right, a lot of people are going to end up suffering because of him."

"That's a bit extreme, don't you think...?" Hermione tried to protest.

Jasmine glared at her over the rims of her glasses. "Hermione, the only way he doesn't become a criminal like his father or a bully like Snape is if he changes. Except he likes who he is and what he's doing — he currently has no incentive to be different because he thinks he can get whatever he wants by behaving this way. It's how his father and Snape have taught him. That leaves negative reinforcement. Punishment. **Pain**."

Hermione and Neville both looked a bit ill at hearing this, but neither quite knew what to say. "Hey, I'm not particularly chuffed at the idea either," Jasmine continued, "but it's been obvious to me since first year. Maybe because it's basically how the Dursleys tried to raise me — all stick, no carrot. I just haven't said it out loud because... well... I'm not sure why I've never mentioned it. You might have noticed that he avoided you for a while after you decked him, Hermione. Direct evidence that pain and humiliation can work with him."

"You two wanted to start lessons tonight, right?" Neville asked in an attempt to change the subject. After receiving nods in response, he continued "I was thinking of bringing Ginny Weasley into this, if that's OK with you. You wouldn't have to tell her your secret, but including her in our lessons would be easier than trying to sneak around her. She'll wonder what's happening if we keep going off alone — remember, she offered to help you, Jasmine. Also, a fourth person would make dancing lessons more productive in the long run."

"Sounds good to me," Jasmine said. "But if we include Ginny, we may have to include Ron. I know they don't always get along, but I can imagine her feeling bad about being asked without him. We were, after all, his friends before we became her friends. Since we won't be revealing any secrets, I guess that's not a big deal, but are the two of you OK with that?" Both Neville and Hermione agreed, albeit reluctantly.

Ginny picked that minute to enter the Great Hall for lunch, and the trio of fourth years waved her over to join them. "How were classes, Gin?" Hermione asked.

"Good," she said cheerfully as she sat next to Neville. "Got delayed because we had so much to clean up in the greenhouse after the Herbology lesson."

The other two girls pointedly stared at Neville at this juncture; at first he looked confused, but then comprehension started to dawn on him. Apparently, since he was going to be the primary teacher for their evening lessons, he also had to be the one to invite someone new — especially since it was his idea for Ginny to join in the first place. _Maybe being responsible isn't all it's cracked up to be_ , he lamented.

"Say, Gin..." Neville began. When he didn't say anything else right away, she turned to look at him quizzically. Clearing his throat, he tried again, "I'm going to help Hermione and Jasmine learn dancing during some of the coming evenings before the Yule Ball. Well, mostly Jasmine since Hermione knows some dancing already, but both she and I need some practice too. Would you be interested? A fourth person would help."

Ginny's eyes lit up with excitement. "Wow, would I! I've been worried about that — my mum showed me some dancing once, but I'm not sure how well I'll remember any of it. I'd feel so much better going to the ball if I could dance. Well, that's assuming I go. I won't be able to if no one asks me..." She looked hopefully at Neville and even tried to flutter her eyelashes a bit, but the effect was utterly lost on the oblivious boy, who had turned back to his meal, mission accomplished. Jasmine and Hermione looked at each other in concern — this was a potential problem they needed to nip in the bud.

Over Neville's shoulder, Ginny saw her brother Ron enter the Great Hall; thus distracted from trying to catch Neville's attention, she waved Ron over to join them. "Oh," she said suddenly, "what about Ron? Were you going to invite him? I'm sure he can use the help." She appeared a little conflicted when she asked, but she looked sincere.

"Sure, if he wants," Jasmine replied while trying to look positive. Even with the current state of their friendship, she probably wouldn't mind doing this with him, but she was now also protecting a vital secret that seemed to put her on edge when certain people got too close — including Ron.

For his part, Ron seemed pleasantly surprised to be invited to join the group for lunch. The strained relationships hadn't allowed for much casual socializing, while interactions in class tended to be a bit stiff and formal. Greeting everyone as he sat next to his sister, Ron proceeded to use both hands to dish two and three helpings of everything on to his plate.

Glad that Ron was on the other side of Ginny, Neville didn't hesitate to take the initiative this time. "Say, Ron, the four of us plan on learning and practicing some dancing in the evenings before the Yule Ball. Are you interested in joining us?"

Ron's grimace indicated that the idea of dancing didn't appeal much. "I dunno. Is this going to take up a lot of time?"

"Oh, I almost forgot," said Hermione, "Neville will also be explaining about traditional customs and practices of magical society."

"Yeah," Neville added, "customs for formal events, how people should be addressed, the relationships between old families, formal etiquette... _table manners_." The stress on that last item was lost on no one except its intended target, who had apparently lost interest much earlier in the description.

"Sorry, mate, I'm going to pass on that," Ron said through a mouthful of food. "Sounds right boring."

This response surprised no one, though only Ginny seemed to show any regret at it. She bounced back quickly, expressing some excitement at the opportunity to learn some of the things which are taught to the children in wealthier families. How much of that was genuine interest in the subject and how much was a product of her interest in the teacher was a question neither of the other two witches could answer.

Hermione didn't spend much time thinking about that, though. She was still preoccupied with Jasmine's statements about Malfoy. She couldn't shake the feeling that they were a bit over the top and that it was somehow inappropriate to so seriously contemplate violence as a means for disciplining a student. She still tended to regard her punching of Malfoy last year as an aberration — and the fact that she enjoyed it was so unlike her! That wasn't how she had been raised at all. Her parents taught her to go to teachers and the police when she had a problem, not to take the rules or the law into her own hands — especially so violently.

At the same time, though, she couldn't deny that he had apparently not been disciplined by lesser means before now, nor did it look like those in authority had any intention of starting soon. Malfoy wasn't a toddler anymore. He wasn't even really a child — not while possessing and learning to wield a wand, which could be a deadly weapon. She'd have to give more thought to what Jasmine had said, both at lunch and earlier in the library.

* * *

**Friday, December 11, 1994, Afternoon.**

Jasmine groaned in resignation as she and her friends made their way down to the castle dungeons. "Maybe publicly embarrassing Malfoy and annoying Snape right before a double potions lesson — and in a way that denied them the opportunity to avenge their wounded pride — wasn't the smartest thing to do."

"You think so, Jas?" Hermione asked, smiling thinly. She wasn't looking forward to this class any more than her friend was — because the two of them always partnered together, any targeting of Jasmine would inevitably affect her as well.

"I'm sorry, Hermione," Jasmine said ruefully in response to her friend's unspoken concerns. "This wouldn't be so bad if the professor was a competent teacher who was able to act more mature than we managed back when we were ickle firsties."

"Like that's ever going to happen," added Neville. He'd always been as much of a target as Jasmine, even if no one could ever explain why. Hermione simply held her tongue; despite having to acknowledge that neither Jasmine nor Neville were treated well in Potions, it was difficult for her to openly and directly criticize a professor like that.

"Don't worry about it, Jas," Hermione said. "It's not your fault. I think that the position of professor should be respected, but his attacks on you, Neville, and anyone you partner with shows that maybe he hasn't earned that respect."

Rounding the corner, they saw the Slytherin students already standing outside the potions lab. Malfoy seemed to have been waiting for their arrival because he almost immediately stepped out from the group and started in on Jasmine. "So, Potter, you claim to already have a date to the Yule Ball, and one that you didn't have to pay for? I'm shocked. I was certain that gold would have to change hands at the very least, but Pansy bet me that gold wouldn't be enough, and that you'd have to spread your legs before anyone would lower themselves to be your date."

While most of the Slytherin students snickered at this, Hermione grabbed Neville's arm and held him back. She had felt him tense and realized that he must suddenly be feeling rather protective of their mutual friend. _What is it about boys and dating that makes them get all macho_ , Hermione wondered, _even when it's just a date between friends?!_

"Has that been your own personal experience, Miss Parkinson?" Jasmine asked with fake sympathy. "I wouldn't know myself, so I must bow to your superior wisdom on such matters. Perhaps that answers so many people's questions about how and why you and Mr. Malfoy became a couple. Speaking of whom..."

Jasmine turned to the blonde bigot, leaving the pug-nosed Parkinson gaping in outrage. "You're correct, Mr. Malfoy, I do have a date. I'm sorry that you waited too long to ask me yourself, but I must confess that I likely would not have accepted your invitation even if it had come early enough. I appreciate the thought, of course, but I couldn't possibly be seen in public being escorted by one such as yourself. I do have standards to maintain, after all."

Right then, the potions lab door opened, and Jasmine was able to move deftly into the dark, dank room, her fellow Gryffindors following close behind while the stunned Slytherins remained in the corridor, trying to figure out what had just happened. For the entire lesson, Malfoy and Parkinson were fuming so much that they were distracted and made a number of mistakes in their brewing. Professor Snape, of course, gave them full marks anyway.

Yet upon arriving at the table where Jasmine and Hermione worked, all he could do was sneer. "What do you call this, Potter? Do you actually consider this to be brewing? You're wasting my time and yours with this pathetic work. Just because you managed to worm your way into the tournament doesn't mean you're going to get any special favors from me in this class." He then slapped Jasmine with an Acceptable for creating a potion that was barely one shade away from the correct color.

While walking back to the Gryffindor dorm to drop off their books before dinner, Jasmine whispered to Neville, "Let's meet in the training room a half hour after dinner ends, but tell Ginny to arrive a half hour after that — Hermione and I need to talk to you about a couple of things before she gets involved. We should have done it earlier, but I didn't think of it."

"Sure," Neville said as he nodded. "I'll make sure she knows."

* * *

**Friday, December 11, 1994, Late Evening.**

When Neville entered the trio's training classroom, he noticed that Jasmine and Hermione were already there, sitting close together. Then he noticed that their robes were rumpled and their hair was a bit of a mess. Neville Longbottom may not have been the most observant of boys, but he wasn't an idiot, either.

Neither was he quite prepared for this particular distraction, however, and he stumbled into a chair and almost fell. That snapped him out of it, so he simply used the chair to sit in and said, "So, what did you want to talk about?"

The girls looked at each other and snorted in simultaneous amusement at Neville's attempted recovery. "Well," Jasmine began, "we have a couple of issues to cover. First, what do we tell others about you and me going to the ball together? I don't mind people knowing — it's not like I'm embarrassed or anything — but I suspect that people knowing will lead to a lot of gossip and negative attention, especially for you. So I recommend that we keep it quiet."

Hermione nodded in agreement while Neville looked thoughtful for a moment before saying, "I hadn't given that a lot of thought. I haven't said anything myself, but only because I thought you hadn't — I was going to follow your lead and let you announce it when and how you wanted. Now that you've explained it, though, I guess you're right. Besides, maybe it will be fun to watch people trying to guess. I wonder if anyone will figure it out?"

"Great, next issue is Ginny," Hermione stated. "I don't think you noticed, but she seemed interested in learning how to dance with us — not simply the learning part, but also in who she'd be learning from."

"Huh?" Neville asked in confusion.

Hermione sighed and opted for bluntness. "Neville, I'm pretty sure she's interested in you, at least a little bit. I think she was angling for you to invite her to the ball. I'm not absolutely certain, I'll admit, but I think I'm right about this. We can wait to see how she acts tonight if you want to be more certain, but one way or another we need to deal with this. She can't go to the ball without a date and she can't be waiting on you to ask her."

"Uh..." Neville seemed to lose the power of speech and his face blossomed red upon learning that a girl might sincerely want to go out on a date with him.

"I'm so sorry, Neville," Jasmine told him. "I expected that someone would want to go to the ball with you, and not simply as friends. It's early enough — if you want to change your mind so you can take Ginny..." Hermione immediately reached over and grabbed her girlfriend's arm, recognizing and trying to stave off Jasmine's usual assumption that she had to take the blame for anything and everything that went wrong around her.

Jasmine's apology brought Neville back to his senses. "No!" he said forcefully. "Absolutely not! I asked and you accepted — I _wan_ **t** to go with you, even if it is only as friends. I'm treating this as a real date, not a fake date, because you're my friends and I know that doing this will help both of you. I haven't been able to help you much before with your problems, but this is something I can do, so I'm going to do it right." The normally shy and retiring Neville Longbottom looked every bit the pureblood scion now, with straightened back and power behind his eyes.

Both witches got a bit misty eyed at this declaration from their friend. Without another word, they jumped up and wrapped him in a joint embrace. This brought the shy Neville back out as his blush returned and his stammering resumed. After they returned to their seats, Jasmine said, "There's no easy solution, but I think that we'll have to tell Ginny about us going to the ball as a couple. We'll also have to make it clear to her that we're keeping it a secret. In fact, we should probably make a blanket statement about how things discussed here may be private and can't be revealed to outsiders. Since Ron won't be joining us, I think I feel a little more comfortable telling her some of what we're working on. But not our big secret. We're not prepared for Ginny learning that."

Neville nodded in understanding. "You do that; I'll let her know about us going to the ball."

After a few minutes of casual conversation about the day's classes, Ginny entered the room. When she looked around, she could see that it had been used recently for activities other than regular class work. Most desks and chairs had been moved against the far walls, some even being piled on top of each other.

While Jasmine checked the Marauders Map to ensure that no one was skulking around in any nearby corridors or rooms, Hermione explained the importance of keeping secrets.

"Originally it may have only been about the tournament, but there have been other... developments since then. I can't go into details right now, but if you're going to spend time here training and helping us train, you're going to hear things and maybe help with things that we can't let others know about. This room has become a sort of sanctuary for us, a place where we can talk honestly and openly about personal matters. We don't want to have to censor ourselves when you're around. Are you prepared to keep our secrets? Are you willing to keep quiet about things you learn here, even if that means hiding them from your family or professors?"

Ginerva Weasley was taken aback at what she was hearing. She had expected to spend some time picking up dance moves, learning a bit about etiquette, and hopefully getting a chance to make an impression on a boy she hoped would ask her to the ball. Apparently, expressing a desire to help Jasmine Potter train and accepting an invitation to learn some things herself required far more commitment than she had realized.

_Then again, maybe I_ _ **should**_ _have realized it_ , she thought. When was anything simple or casual with Jasmine Potter? This was the girl who had been shunned for a year by the whole school, then rescued her from a 30 meter, millennium-old basilisk under the castle. This was the girl who used a patronus charm to drive off a hundred dementors while they were in a feeding frenzy. This was the girl who was somehow entered against her will into a deadly tournament and proceeded to outfly a Hungarian Horntail, one of the nastiest dragons on the planet.

_Yeah, come to think of it, I should have known that there'd be far more than casual dancing and training on the menu._ In fact, whatever these "secrets" might be, they were probably only the beginning — it wasn't even the middle of December yet, and the worst didn't usually happen to Jasmine until June. Things were liable to get interesting over the coming months. _Can I handle "interesting"?_ she wondered.

Making her decision, she affirmed, "You can count on me, Hermione," and stood a little straighter. "I promised I'd help Jasmine, and if that means keeping secrets or helping with something outside the tournament, I'm your girl." There was scarcely a choice to make here: even if she didn't owe Jasmine Potter a witch's debt, she could see how much of a burden the green-eyed witch was forced to shoulder year after year. There was no chance that she'd turn away and force her to shoulder it alone, not if there was some way she could help. "I'll even give you a magical oath, if you want."

Hermione smiled warmly. "Thank you. I hadn't decided if I should ask or not, but since you're offering, we happen to have a good oath that you can give. Neville's already made the same oath, in fact, so you won't have to feel singled out."

After giving her oath, which Ginny was happy to see would not cause her to risk losing her magic or her life, the four Gryffindors proceeded to learn about dancing. Ginny and Jasmine had to sit out initially while Neville and Hermione worked with each other to refresh their memories of their own dancing instruction. For each dance, Ginny and Jasmine would start out watching and listening while Neville and Hermione practiced together.

"After that," Neville explained, "Jasmine and I will mostly practice together. There will be some switching of partners, of course, but Jasmine and I will spend most of our time together because we'll be attending the ball as a couple. That means we'll need to get used to dancing with each other."

Ginny couldn't hide the disappointed look on her face, and Jasmine tried to distract her a little by leaning over to say that this was one of their secrets. "We don't want to produce a lot of negative attention, especially for Neville," she explained, "so the two of us plan to simply refuse to answer when asked who our dates will be."

Perhaps it was because they were working together, but both Neville and Hermione seemed to remember their dancing lessons fairly easily, and before the end they were barely stepping on each other's feet. This gave some hope to the other two, who were far less experienced.

Neville's etiquette lesson turned out to be rather less boring than Jasmine had feared. She had realized that she might need to know about this sort of thing, based on what little information she had received from Professor McGonagall, but that didn't mean she was looking forward to actually learning it. Hermione, of course, was anxious to learn almost anything, especially if it was useful.

Neville started out with how to formally introduce, greet, and address people in magical high society, so they all had fun bowing, curtsying, and using made-up titles to simulate encounters they might have. Surprising the girls with his decisive attitude, Neville instructed them that at future lessons they'd have to demonstrate their knowledge of these customs by properly greeting and addressing each other, just as they would at a real formal ball.

Before leaving, they all agreed to meet back at the room after breakfast the next morning to work on the puzzle of Jasmine's screeching golden egg. There was plenty of time since the second task wasn't until late February, but Hermione in particular didn't want to leave it for too long. No one knew how long exactly it would take to prepare for the task once they had the clue, so it would be better to ensure that Jasmine would have the maximum amount of time possible.

* * *

**Saturday, December 12, 1994, Morning.**

Weekend breakfasts were much more sparsely attended than during the week, so the Gryffindor quartet was able to get into the Great Hall, eat, and get back out again without many people paying attention to them. On the way to their training room, Jasmine tried to carefully bring up a topic with Ginny that the others agreed needed to be broached, though none had been certain how to do it without causing further difficulties.

"So, Gin," Jasmine started, trying to sound casual but unsure whether she was successful or not, "Have you thought about who you might go to the ball with?" It was hard to miss the slight hitch in Ginny's step at that question, but to her credit she didn't give any further outward reaction. "Learning dancing and etiquette won't be as useful to you if we can't get you a proper partner to escort you."

Jasmine's deliberate use of the word "we" in that statement did not go unnoticed, and it had the desired effect on the younger witch. "Are you saying that you'd be willing to help me?" Ginny asked. The others noticed that she seemed surprised that help of this sort would be offered.

"Of course," Jasmine insisted. "We know that you won't be able to go to the ball unless you're with someone from fourth year or above, and getting a date from one of the higher years that you don't know well will be difficult."

"Is there anyone in our year that you've had your eye on?" Hermione asked. "Maybe someone that one of the three of us knows well enough to talk to for you?"

Ginny's previously quiet and reserved demeanor quickly disappeared and was replaced by a bubbly enthusiasm. It appeared as if she might have given up hope at getting a date to the ball, but now that hope was being renewed. "I don't know many boys in your year very well, but in Gryffindor, at least, Dean Thomas seems like he's pretty nice. Seamus, I'm sorry to say, is a bit creepy at times, and there's no way I'm going with my own brother."

Neville laughed at that. "Yeah, Seamus can be a bit of a perv. He's OK, but if I had a sister I don't think I'd want her dating him. And Ron...well, unless he changes his attitude, I don't think he'll be getting a date at all. But Dean is nice. I'll try to bring you up in conversation when I talk to him next and see what he says."

"Oh, thanks Neville!" Ginny said as they approached the door to their training room. While Jasmine checked the map, Hermione turned to the boy and asked, "What did you mean about Ron's attitude?"

Grimacing, Neville tried to explain. "As far as I can tell, he hasn't made any efforts whatsoever to attract or impress any girls. Despite that, whenever the subject of the ball comes up — especially when it's just us guys in the dorm — he insists that he doesn't want to go with any ugly birds and hopes that all the good ones aren't taken too quickly. It's like he expects a pretty girl to fall into his arms simply because... well, I don't know why. Because of who he is?"

"Honestly! That... that... ohhh! He makes me so mad sometimes!" The others all laughed — Hermione hadn't had a really good Ron Rant in a while, and Jasmine thought that maybe she might have missed them a little. That was one thing Jasmine had yet to figure out about Hermione. Ron wasn't a complete idiot, and while some of the things he said could be attributed to "speaking before thinking" disease, not all of them could. Even the thickest boy should eventually learn to stop giving voice to certain opinions, even if he didn't learn to stop having them at all.

This meant that Ron was probably doing it deliberately, at least some of the time. This also meant that either Hermione hadn't figured out that he wasn't so dense... or perhaps she had, but she was trying to enjoy debating anyway, despite how often she ended up frustrated, in tears, or both. Most days, Jasmine was inclined to go with the former: while she herself had a more isolated upbringing than Hermione, the other witch had arrived at Hogwarts more socially stunted. She was loads better now than in first year, when she was constantly trying to act like a prefect and always trying to show off to the professors, but she still had a ways to go.

Hoping to distract Hermione before she got going, Neville reached the door and ushered her in with an elaborate flourish, adding, "After you, m'lady."

Hermione giggled in spite of herself, responding with a bob and a demure "Why, thank you, kind sir!" before they all filed into the classroom to wrestle with the problem of the golden egg.


	6. Distractions and Realizations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: It was pointed out to me (by more than one person!) that I inadvertently made Hermione sound like a masochist in the last chapter. I apologize to all for my unclear wording, which I have changed. Jasmine was considering the possibility that Hermione enjoyed debating and kept trying to find that in Ron, despite the fact that he always disappointed her, not that she enjoyed being reduced to tears time after time by him. And Jasmine rejected that option anyway, deciding instead that Hermione probably hadn't figured out that Ron had been deliberately baiting her (some of the time, a least). Thanks to Silently Watches and Blitzstrahl for pointing out the problem.
> 
> Recommendation: This chapter's recommended fic is "Escape" by JackPotr. He's only written a couple of Harry/Hermione stories, and this is a great tale of Harry leaving Britain after the final battle and Hermione realizing where she belongs. It's short and sweet.

**Saturday, December 12, 1994, Late Morning.**

After two hours of work in their commandeered classroom, the four Gryffindor friends had nothing to show for their efforts to solve the puzzle of the screeching egg except sore ears and frayed nerves. Casting the Bubble Head charm muffled the noise, but it was an advanced charm, and none of them were experienced enough to get it to hold for more than a few minutes (though Jasmine's and Hermione's seemed to last longest). Fortunately Hermione's silencing spells on the classroom door were strong enough to prevent outsiders from being alerted and coming to see what was going on.

Jasmine grumbled about stupid tournament organizers and finally agreed with everyone else when the suggestion was made to quit for a while. Everyone knew that "a while" might last until after Christmas, given how many other things they still needed to deal with. For that reason, it was decided that they would all do some independent research about different elements and compare notes once they met again.

Neville would focus on the relief at the top of the egg because it looked like a type of plant. Hermione would research the runes found etched around the bottom of the egg. Jasmine would look into languages and other types of communication that might incorporate screeching. Ginny would investigate the idea of an "egg" itself, in case it had more meaning than the obvious need to have an egg for a dragon's nest.

Fortunately the second task wasn't until the end of February so Jasmine wasn't worried. Yet. Hermione, in contrast, got nervous whenever she thought about it and so would ensure that no one would forget.

The three fourth-year students decided to spend the rest of the morning working in the library while Ginny chose instead to return to the Gryffindor common room to work with a couple of her year-mates. Once ensconced at Hermione's favorite library table, the three friends got to work on the various essays that had been assigned earlier that week. Despite being late in the morning, the library was relatively empty with just a few groups and individuals at work. The only noteworthy person there was Viktor Krum, the Durmstrang champion, who was reading something at one of the only tables in sight of their own.

Before this term, Neville hadn't had much experience doing assignments with friends and was surprised at how quickly the writing could go when working with these two witches — and usually with much better grades, too. _I wonder how Ron is doing without their help?_ he thought. Well, there was no sense dwelling on it — he felt pretty sure Ron would eventually work his way back into the girls' trust. _Assuming he continues to behave_ , Neville amended silently.

At lunch they met back up with Ginny, where she and Neville were invited to help the other two with what would be the first explicitly secret project being pursued. "I wish I could tell you more," Hermione explained, "because I know it's hard making a decision when you're in the dark like this. Unfortunately, I can't — it's an important secret for us. I can, however, tell you that it is about the behavior of the headmaster, and that another member of staff has recommended we do this because it might point to possible harm that has been done to Jasmine."

Ginny and Neville were at first a bit reluctant to give up more time, and to something unknown, but the hints offered definitely had them intrigued. Combined with their desire to help and protect Jasmine, they had reason enough to join the other two in the commandeered classroom, at least for a little while. They never expected that "a little while" would become nearly four hours, longer than they had spent on the egg that morning.

The girls started out by explaining how Jasmine had come to distrust Professor McGonagall, then about how they had approached the professor herself with their concerns, shocking her into remorse once they had laid it all out for her. Neville had already heard some of this earlier, but now Jasmine and Hermione went into far more detail.

At first they found it all difficult to accept, but the longer the girls went on, the harder it became to deny. Even more shocking was hearing that McGonagall had recommended that they cast a critical eye on Dumbledore's involvement in Jasmine Potter's life. Dumbledore was one of the giants of magical Britain and had been for some fifty years; to suggest that there was anything remotely questionable about his actions was tantamount to blasphemy — especially to Ginny, whose family had long been staunch Dumbledore supporters.

However, they couldn't ignore the evidence that had already been amassed against McGonagall, and much of that counted against the headmaster as well, so they all got to work. Ginny and Neville didn't have as much to contribute since they hadn't been as closely involved with Jasmine as Hermione had, but they both had stories to tell, and as purebloods who were raised in the magical community their perspectives proved to be helpful when analyzing the many incidents and conversations.

Ideally they would have started with Dumbledore's early years, but none of them knew enough about that to even begin. Hermione promised she'd do the research later, assuming she could find unbiased books. They also couldn't say anything about his legislative record, which inspired another promise of research from the bushy-haired witch. Thus they started with Jasmine's own life, and it wasn't an auspicious beginning once they considered the ramifications of leaving a toddler on a doorstep like a bottle of milk — and in the middle of a November night, too!

Jasmine had to admit that the Durselys' treatment of her was a bit more understandable given that they were never asked if they would or could raise a second child and were apparently never offered any sort of help, financial or otherwise. She honestly had no idea how much of a burden she had been on their lives and finances. That didn't excuse their behavior, of course; nor did it excuse the fact that either Dumbledore never bothered to check on Jasmine, or else he did, knew exactly what was happening, and left her there anyway.

"Who on earth does that sort of thing?!" asked Ginny, giving voice to the outrage that they all were feeling. Her reaction would have been much worse had Jasmine gone into significant detail about how she was treated at the Dursleys, but she wasn't quite ready to do that yet.

Hermione, after thinking for a few minutes, suggested that it seemed awfully suspicious that no one from the school or from the local authority ever checked up on her. If her appearance when she first arrived at Hogwarts had been indicative — and Jasmine assured them that it was — she had spent most of her life walking around too thin, too small, and wearing clothing that obviously didn't fit her. "Teachers are required by law to report even a suspicion of abuse," Hermione pointed out, "so what happened? Did they all _magically_ forget? Or did someone inform the authorities, but that report was _magically_ lost?"

Jasmine looked questioningly at Hermione when she raised these issues as if to say, _Who could have done such a thing?_ Hermione tilted her head sideways and looked expectantly at her. Jasmine's eyebrows rose almost into her hairline when she reached the same conclusion her girlfriend obviously had. _Dumbledore? We think he may have done some heinous things, but... this?_ Hermione gave a little shrug of resignation, knowing they had no evidence of wrongdoing but couldn't afford to ignore the possibility _._

Ginny and Neville didn't even realize that the other two had just had a silent conversation, much less what the topic was.

They then proceeded through a variety of strange or suspicious things about her life: having only the kind but admittedly hapless Hagrid to introduce her to the wizarding world, the fact that she was already recognizable and famous even before then, the absence of mail, and her complete ignorance about basic things like the scope of her family's inheritance — and did she even have any other relatives? Next came concerns about Hogwarts as a school: some notably poor teachers, the lack of discipline for misbehaving students (even if some of the beneficiaries were the Marauders and the Weasley twins), tolerance of pureblood bigotry, and a general failure to provide guidance.

The most important topic was of course Jasmine's experiences at Hogwarts. Every year it seemed she had saved the school and/or the headmaster's job, despite the fact that that should be a task for adults. All she had received as recognition had been some house points, and never once was she offered any sort of counseling to deal with the deaths and dangers she'd faced.

In the end, the four students were all disturbed about both the number of questionable incidents and how serious some of them had been. Hermione had filled up dozens of sheets of parchment and was covered in splotches of ink because her growing anger prevented her from being her usually neat self. It was a somber and depressed group that split up so they could get a bit of homework done before dinner, but they all promised to be back after the meal so they could practice some more dancing. They agreed that they could use something fun and distracting to end the day with.

* * *

**Sunday, December 13, 1994, Early Morning.**

The Hogwarts library tended to be even more sparsely populated on Sunday mornings than on Saturdays, though it was noteworthy that Viktor Krum was once again present. The relative emptiness of the library always suited Hermione Granger, which was why she had long made it a habit to use the library during these unpopular hours. Well, she used the library at all hours, to be honest, but everyone knew that she could be found here early most weekend mornings.

These were the times that she could be guaranteed use of the table she wanted (a table she threatened many times to ward against everyone else, once she learned the necessary rune sets), to find the books she needed (thus necessitating the larger, stronger table), and to avoid the distractions of chatting, pestering students (because libraries are for books, not annoying people). Though to be fair, there was one other she graciously conceded should be allowed use of the library alongside her: Jasmine Potter.

Jasmine, for her part, was never the library or book snob that Hermione was, nor was she as academically competitive as Hermione was driven to be. This didn't mean that she wasn't smart or creative, but left to her own devices she probably would have settled for a much lower standard of work in her classes. That ceased to be an option after she'd saved Hermione from that troll.

For her part, Hermione certainly wasn't going to let her first friend be anything less than the best witch she could possibly be. It was that sort of bossiness that helped prevent Hermione from having any _other_ close friends, and it definitely grated on the green-eyed witch at times. Yet she must have seen something in Hermione that made her persevere in the friendship, trying to moderate her bossy mannerisms while Hermione in turn worked to get her friend to be more committed and driven in her academics.

Somewhere along the way, they had found a comfortable middle ground which they could inhabit together. _That's why Jasmine usually accompanies me to the library early on weekend mornings despite her preference to have a lie in,_ mused Hermione. _That's also why we usually quit early enough before lunch to go for a walk, despite my preference to keep working until the library closes._

It could be a delicate balance, but it worked for them. At least, it had worked for the past few years — now, however, Hermione wasn't so sure.

She'd already organized and rewritten her notes on Dumbledore for their afternoon meeting with Professor McGonagall, and she wanted to get in a little research into Dumbledore's early life — or at least get a handle on how good the material in the library was.

Unfortunately, she had become distracted... and Hermione Granger _hated_ being distracted from her work. The current source of her distraction was none other than the girl sitting across from her. _Being distracted by her isn't that unusual,_ Hermione noted to herself. But she'd long since learned how to deal with Jasmine's most common distracting behaviors — talking about Quidditch, trying to balance a quill on her nose, cackling over some new plan to thwart her nemesis of the week, and of course deliberately mispronouncing spells solely for the purpose of getting a rise out of her. _She thinks I don't know it's deliberate._

These were all things Hermione had learned to deal with, but now Jasmine had somehow found a new and diabolical method of utterly distracting her from work. _She's just sitting there,_ Hermione fumed. _Working!_ Jasmine had always been smart and a hard worker, at least when she put her mind to it, and Hermione always liked seeing her do well.

_Now, though, there's something more._ Looking up from her book, the bushy-haired witch licked her lips while staring at her new girlfriend. _Now... she looks_ _ **good**_ _while doing it._

Granted, Jasmine had always been pretty and was getting prettier as the years went by; but now, instead of simply being an intellectual realization, it was something Hermione could _feel_. Her heart had sped up, there were butterflies in her stomach, her mouth was dry... for a bit, she was afraid she might be getting sick. Worse, the more she looked at Jasmine, the greater the reaction; the greater the reaction, the more distracted she was; the more distracted she was, the more she ended up looking.

_Holy Cricket!_ Hermione realized, _I really am falling for her, aren't I? I had my first kiss Thursday morning. I had my first snogging session Friday night. Now here it is, only Sunday morning, and all I want to do is jump across this table and snog her senseless. How did that happen? Is this normal?_

Jasmine picked that moment to catch Hermione staring at her and of course gave her that lopsided grin of hers before asking, "Whatcha thinking about there so hard?" A part of Hermione so wanted to tell the truth and say "snogging you senseless," just to see how much _she_ liked being distracted. A slightly larger part, though, was still embarrassed to be having such thoughts at all and would never admit to them in public, so instead she simply answered, "What color knickers you're wearing."

Hermione froze and thought her heart might have stopped completely. _Where in Merlin's name did_ _ **that**_ _come from?!_ Jasmine looked a little puzzled, but said simply, "Well, all you have to do was ask..." Hermione felt herself blush so furiously that she wondered how it was that she still had blood left for anywhere else in her body.

_And this is why I hate being distracted,_ Hermione thought, _I can't concentrate on_ _ **anything**_ _that I try to do! I can't even control what words come out of my mouth!_

Quickly packing her books, Hermione grabbed Jasmine's hand and started muttering, "So much for that, we might as well leave. There's no way I'm getting any further work done now. I hope you're happy, distracting me so much. I don't see how you expect me to get any work done at all, with you sitting there, reading, and... and... wearing colored knickers. I mean, **honestly**!"

Jasmine looked thoughtful for a moment at Hermione's babbling, then leaned in close and whispered with exaggerated innocence, "What? Would you prefer I didn't wear any?"

* * *

**Sunday, December 13, 1994, Afternoon.**

When the two witches entered Professor McGonagall's office after lunch, Hermione's face was still flaming, and Jasmine sported a self-satisfied smile. Minerva looked closer and didn't see the disheveled clothing or tousled hair that usually characterized a recent visit to a broom cupboard, but she wasn't sure she wanted to know what had caused these reactions. Sometimes it's best to simply let sleeping hippogriffs lie.

"Well," Minerva began after all three witches were seated on either side of her desk, "is there anything either of you want to ask or say before we start? Have you done as I suggested and given some thought to the actions of the headmaster?"

"As a matter of fact, we have," answered Jasmine, who then turned to look at Hermione. The red-faced witch was staring straight ahead as if she hadn't heard anything, then suddenly she seemed to come back to herself, saying, "Oh, yes. Right." Reaching into her bag, she pulled out a sheaf of parchment to hand over to her professor. "The two of us worked with Neville Longbottom and Ginny Weasley to come up with a list of questionable actions and events. The first piece of parchment is a summary list; the rest contain all the details we know of."

Minerva was impressed with the thoroughness of the work, though perhaps not entirely surprised, given the source. Even just reading over the summary, she experienced a combination of anger and shame — anger that so many awful things had happened to a child, and shame at her own role in many of them.

In the end, shame won out, but it was a near thing. She had to close her eyes for a moment after putting down the parchment in order to regain her composure. Once she trusted her voice enough to resume speaking, she looked back and forth between the two students. "Thank you for this — there is information in here that even I wasn't aware of. However, I assume that you have left out some details... like, for example, everything you went through with your relatives, Miss Potter?"

Jasmine suddenly found something interesting to pull at in her lap. She couldn't bring herself to meet anyone's eyes, but she did nod her head. Only Hermione's hand on her arm kept her from jumping up and running. She hadn't been willing to discuss anything but the barest of generalities when Ginny and Neville were present; it had been hard enough to explain the few extra details to Hermione later.

"I realize that this isn't a pleasant subject, but I would recommend going into specifics. If we are ever to use this against the headmaster, the more specific details we have — including dates, if possible — the better." Both girls looked sharply at their professor upon hearing this. Neither had expected that either they or anyone else would act against Dumbledore.

"Yes, you heard me right," Minerva continued. "I'm not promising you that we ever will. I'm not even making any promises about how — we might not be able to do more than merely threaten him with releasing it. But whatever we might want to do, we'll be more likely to accomplish our goals if we have more information. And yes, I do mean **we**. I have failed you both, you in particular Miss Potter, and I don't intend to do that again. I'll be helping and supporting you in whatever way I can."

After straightening up the sheaf of parchment, Minerva pulled out her wand and duplicated it with a quick wave. Handing what might have been the original over to Hermione, she said, "Please take this back and add to it anything else that you can. I'll add to the copy I have. Later, we can combine the two into a more complete and accurate record of events. In fact, we should consider making it a standing appointment to meet Sunday afternoons. We'll have enough matters to discuss that I think we'll be able to fill the rest of the school year with ease."

"Professor," Jasmine started after a moment, "assuming that everything we wrote down is true as far as we know it, what has given him the right to meddle in my life so much?"

"That's a good question, and I'm not sure if there is a good answer. One likely possibility is that he might have asserted some form of guardianship over you."

"Guardianship?" Jasmine asked. "I thought the Dursleys were my guardians."

"That's right, I'm sorry," Minerva responded. "I mean a magical guardianship."

"What's that?" Hermione interjected, frowning.

Sighing, Minerva answered, "This is never easy to explain to muggleborn students. In the muggle world, a child's parents or guardians are normally contacted for permission to do certain things. The same is true in the magical community... except where muggle parents are concerned. You see, muggles don't know enough about magic to easily make informed decisions for their children, and it's difficult to get them into magical places where they can see what's going on. Unfortunately, given the magical community's lack of respect for muggles, the category of things that a magical guardian has authority over has expanded greatly."

"Does every muggleborn student have a magical guardian?" Hermione asked.

"Yes and no," Minerva answered. "Usually, there's no need to go beyond what is already covered for all students under the concept of _in loco parentis_. So decisions are made by whomever is the immediately responsible adult — the healer, the headmaster, or even your head of house. When a more serious situation arises, the headmaster makes a determination about whether this is something muggle parents can deal with, or if it requires too much magical knowledge or experience and is thus a decision that a magical guardian must make. For example, Miss Granger, your parents weren't consulted about your medical treatment when you were petrified in second year."

"So he might have asserted some form of magical guardianship over me in order to make decisions about my life?" Jasmine asked.

"That is one possibility," Minerva answered. "I'm not sure, though, where I'd look to find out." Minerva McGonagall then adopted a much softer expression. "Now, I think I invited you here to talk about the Potter family and your possible inheritance, yes? Well, I obviously don't have all the information, and some of what I think I know may be wrong. I'm relying in part on what I heard in passing from your parents and grandparents over the years."

"The first thing to know is that your family was once considered an 'Ancient and Noble' family. This designation is reserved for the oldest and most powerful families in magical society. The Potters lost the title in the wake of the Grindelwald war because so much of their resources were destroyed. The family was no less old, of course, but they lost a lot of money and power. Your family's enemies took advantage of that. Fortunately your family didn't lose their hereditary seat on the Wizengamot, but that might have been partially because of your grandfather's marriage to Dorea Black. The Black family today remains 'Ancient and Noble,' by the way. I don't know what happened to that seat — if it's still available to you, if it was transferred to someone else, or what. I also don't know if or how the 'Ancient and Noble' status can be regained."

Minerva then turned in her seat, bent over, and picked up an average-looking bookbag. "This," she said, "is a collection of books that all deal with the Potter family in some fashion. Some are about specific Potter individuals while others are general histories that I think include important information about Potters." Hermione's eyes flashed in excitement at the prospect of so much new knowledge — and knowledge about her favorite person, too!

"Wow," Jasmine said as she accepted the bag. She didn't miss the unconscious little grasping motions that Hermione's hands were making. "Where did all of this come from?"

"Another good question, Miss Potter. They _used_ to be in the library."

"Used to be?" Hermione asked with a dangerous edge in her voice. Had her precious library been _violated?_

"Yes. I went looking for them, surprised that neither of you had ever thought to check them out, but I discovered that they were all missing. After a bit of hunting, I found that they had been placed in a storage room used for duplicates and overflow books."

"Why would they have been put there? And by whom?" Jasmine asked

"I honestly don't know," McGonagall said, shaking her head. "I don't even know how long they've been there."

Neither girl had anything to say to that. One more thing to put on their list of suspicious incidents.

"With regards to your likely inheritance," continued Minerva, "I have less information. Even after the Grindelwald war, the Potters had a fair amount of money, properties, and investments. They weren't destitute, though they weren't as rich and powerful as they had been. However, that was sixty years ago, and I don't know what happened to it all. Your grandfather Charlus was, as far as I know, a shrewd businessman. With Dorea by his side, I would have expected him to grow the Potter fortune."

"Your father James... well, I have no idea what sort of businessman he was or might have become. He died too young. I don't know how much he started with when he became head of the family, and I couldn't tell you how much was left when he died. However, everything that was left should have been set aside for you, Miss Potter."

"So, that's what's in my trust vault?" Jasmine asked.

"Miss Potter, a trust vault is exactly that — a _trust_ ," explained Minerva. "Those funds are made available to you for your schooling while you are growing up. A trust isn't meant to be a person's full inheritance. In fact, it's something you would have had available to you even if your parents were alive. It's a way for you to be somewhat financially independent and gives you a chance to demonstrate how responsible you are with your family's money while you are attending school. There should be at least one standard family vault, however it wouldn't be available to you until you reach your majority."

"There's an awful lot of uncertainty in all this," Jasmine said morosely.

"Indeed, Miss Potter. I'm afraid that the only place you're likely to get any certainty is Gringotts — and even then, I'm not sure. The goblins are sticklers for rules and regulations. I don't know what rules might limit what they can and cannot tell you."

"Well," said Hermione, trying to look hopeful, "we've got a place to start. We've got books to read and maybe a trip to Gringotts to plan."

"If you two intend to visit Gringotts," Minerva said with a stern look, "be certain to talk to me first. I'd like to try to schedule it for a time when the headmaster is out of the castle and hopefully occupied for the day. The less he knows, the better."

Hermione suddenly remembered something important. "Oh, Professor, have you by any chance seen a copy of the tournament rules? Jasmine asked Professor Dumbledore for a copy, but he never got back to her. I doubt that asking again would do any good, at least given what we are learning now. Do you have any ideas of where we could find it?"

Minerva thought about that for a moment before answering, "To be perfectly honest, I haven't seen a copy and I probably should have — not just as a member of staff, but as the Head of House for one of the champions. I'll start looking around."

"Thank you for all this information, Professor..." Jasmine said as she started to stand, but she was interrupted before she could finish.

"I need to ask you two a question. Forgive me if this sounds a bit too forward, but it's important. Tell me honestly: how serious are the two of you?"

Jasmine and Hermione looked at each other for a moment, both biting their bottom lips and feeling a bit bewildered at the question. Then Jasmine said as they both turned back to their professor, "To be honest, Professor, that's a hard question to answer. I mean, we've only just started. It sounds strange to say that we're serious already." She bit her bottom lip again as Hermione took up the line of thought. "At the same time, though, I can't deny that it _feels_ serious, and I'm sure Jasmine would agree."

The auburn-haired witch nodded her head vigorously, then Hermione continued, "Maybe it just sounds like immature teens in their first relationship, but I'd like to think it has more to do with how close we've been for the past three years. I think we're both committed to making this work because of how right it feels and because, quite frankly, I can't imagine being without her." Hermione was smiling at Jasmine when she said this last, and the other witch returned that smile, saying, "I feel the same way."

Nodding, their transfiguration professor said, "Good, I'm glad to hear all of that — both that you're serious and that you're cautious, given that this is your first relationship. Knowing that, I have something for the two of you."

Reaching into her desk drawer, Minerva pulled out a large, well-worn book with black leather binding. Handing it directly to Hermione, she said, "This is a special book. Few copies were ever printed — in fact, I don't think I've ever seen another copy, though that's not surprising. However many there are left, they are all probably well-hidden in private collections."

Taking the book gingerly into her hands, Hermione read the title: _The Power of Love: Love is Never Dangerous,_ by D. Tempest Pureheart. She turned back to her professor with a questioning look in her eye.

"This was written in the early 20th century to defend, ah, 'alternative' relationships," explained Minerva. "It covers same-sex, polygamous, and polyamorous relationships. Since it was written by a witch, it deals almost entirely with the concerns and relationships of witches. There may be a similar book with wizards in mind, but I've never seen one. Ms. Pureheart refutes the common, traditionalist arguments against such relationships, explains what's good and valuable about them, and finally describes how such relationships can affect or interact with magic — in particular, magical rites and rituals."

Now both girls were looking at the book with awe and reverence. Neither had been able to find anything of value on this topic in the Hogwarts library. "Thank you, Professor McGonagall," Hermione said, unable to tear her eyes away from the heavy tome. "I promise I'll get it back to you as soon—"

"No," Minerva interrupted while holding up a hand. "It's yours. I am gifting it to you, since you have need of it whereas I do not. It makes no sense for me to allow it to go to waste, buried in an old trunk. Use it well, but I implore you to keep it secret. This book was never officially banned, but I think that's only because the Ministry never wanted to be seen admitting that such behaviors or relationships exist in the first place. Instead, it is considered inappropriate to have a copy, especially for witches as young as you. If it were discovered in your possession, it would probably be confiscated then 'accidentally' destroyed. So keep it safe."

Neither girl knew what to say. They had pretty much given up hope at finding written material on this topic — it seemed to be so taboo in magical society that no one was willing to write about it, not even for the purpose of criticizing it. Now, though, they had been gifted what seemed like a priceless treasure: a rare book that not only talked about relationships like theirs, but explained how such relationships could interact with magic. And rituals! That was a highly restricted subject that wasn't even taught in Hogwarts, but here was a professor simply handing information over.

Tears of gratitude shone in both witches' eyes when they thanked their Transfiguration professor and left. Smiling sadly, Minerva McGonagall allowed herself to turn back once again to memories she had thought were long buried and forgotten. She hadn't wanted to ever be reminded of that pain, but she wasn't going to be able to help these two young witches if she continued to ignore her own past.

It surprised her that she was opening up so much to them — she was usually far more reserved around her students, maintaining a strictly professional relationship and not getting personally involved. That attitude couldn't continue, though, because she owed it to them to help them with this. She owed it to someone else, too.

Walking slowly to her private bedroom, she opened a battered trunk and dug around a bit to pull out a magically sealed box. After softly reciting the password, she opened it and pulled out an old, worn photo album. On it was a name: _Bonnie Freya Roy_. Sitting down on the edge of her tartan-covered bed, she gently opened the book to the first page of pictures and began to silently weep.

* * *

**Sunday, December 13, 1994, Late Night.**

Hermione Granger couldn't sleep. She'd been lying in bed for hours, but sleep stubbornly would not come. As she lay there in bed, she listened to the soft sounds of girls sleeping around her — and of one girl in particular. After more than three years, she had learned to easily pick out the sounds of Jasmine Potter sleeping. She could always tell, without ever having to think about it, when Jasmine was sleeping soundly, when she was having a nightmare, and when she was simply lying awake.

Jasmine was the reason _she_ was the one currently lying awake. She'd been experiencing stronger and stronger reactions to Jasmine, and they didn't make sense. Hermione _hated_ it when things didn't make sense. Normally when something didn't make sense, she'd head to the library, grab twenty or thirty books, and research it to death. In this case, though, she had no idea where she'd begin to do research. She wasn't even confident that she understood the problem.

_On the one hand,_ she considered, _I've started kissing and even snogging Jasmine. I've been thinking more and more how pretty she is. While looking at her or thinking about her, my heart starts racing, and my mouth goes dry. To cap it all off, earlier today thoughts about her in her knickers came to me out of_ _ **nowhere**_ _, making me so embarrassed and excited that I couldn't think straight. And if that weren't bad enough, Jasmine had the gall to get me to think about her_ _ **not**_ _wearing any knickers. She did that on purpose, just to watch me squirm — I know she did!_

_On the other hand,_ Hermione continued to muse, _Jasmine and I are friends. We're best friends, in fact. We do everything possible together. I've seen her when she's happy. I've seen her when she's moody and depressed. I've seen her when she hasn't slept and has horrible circles under her eyes. I've held her when she's sick and hocking up bogies. I've seen her in her knickers on an almost daily basis. I've seen her without her knickers. I've seen her naked in the shower many times._

Hermione sat up at this point, hoping that a vertical position might be conducive to problem-solving. _Over the past three years, we've been friends, roommates, partners, and equals. We're so in sync with each other that most of the time we don't even need to speak when working together. It's a relationship that hasn't had a single romantic or erotic element whatsoever._

And that aspect of the relationship hadn't stopped, she realized. _Earlier, when we changed clothes for bed, it was perfectly normal. I was completely indifferent to her state of dress. But a few hours earlier, the idea of her not wearing knickers produced so many naughty thoughts that I couldn't stop blushing!_ As if to prove her point, she could feel a blush start again, accompanied by a warm feeling in her lower abdomen.

_OK, I get it, I'm not straight. Not entirely, anyway._ She buried her face in her hands as she sighed in resignation. _I fancy Jasmine. I want to kiss Jasmine. I want to... do things with Jasmine._ The warm feeling started spreading at this point. _But how can I pursue that sort of thing with my best friend? I can't do all the things friends casually do without even noticing and explore a romantic, physical relationship with her at the same time, can I? If we regularly change clothes in front of each other, thoughts of her in her knickers won't be exciting; if I get excited thinking about her in her knickers, we won't be able to change or shower casually in front of each other._

_I don't understand how having both could be possible, but I don't want to have to choose!_ Flopping back on the bed, Hermione groaned in frustration. _Why do relationships have to be so complicated? Isn't there a book where I can get all the answers?_

Casting _Tempus_ , she saw that a grand total of ten minutes had passed since the last time she looked, and she was no closer to either answers or sleep. It was going to be a long, long night.


	7. Bindings and Separations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: A reviewer expressed concerns last chapter about the prospect of common and unwanted cliches like overly-helpful goblins, Dumbledore stealing Potter funds, etc. I can assure everyone that such fears will prove unfounded. It may at times look like things are heading down such well-worn paths, but they won't be. Or not quite. Dumbledore is definitely not stealing anything, though he's not exactly telling everyone everything (which is canon). Goblins will be helpful, but not overly so and not for reasons I expect anyone to guess. If anyone worries about certain cliches ruining the story, feel free to ask and I'll answer as best I can.
> 
> Recommendation: This chapter's recommended fic is "Delenda Est" by Lord Silvere. It is, hands down, the best Harry/Bellatrix story available — it's not just believable how they are brought together, it's a very believable relationship as it develops, too. It's got politics, combat, and the most entertaining depiction of Bellatrix I have ever seen. There's even a sequel, though it hasn't progressed very far as of this writing.

**Monday, December 14, 1994, Early Morning.**

With a yawn, Hermione Granger closed the twentieth library book she'd looked at so far that morning. She'd hardly gotten any sleep the previous night because her mind kept going over and over the same puzzle: how could she pursue a physical romance with someone she already had such a good, platonic friendship with? How could she find something exciting and erotic one minute, but ignore or dismiss it as irrelevant the next?

At some point in the early morning hours it occurred to her that maybe her new book would have the answers she needed. It had, after all, been written with witches like her and Jasmine in mind. _Maybe this was a problem unique to witch/witch relations?_ she wondered. It was times like this that Hermione almost lamented her lack of social experience — people were so much more complicated than books!

Hermione could see, even after a little bit of reading, that D. Tempest Pureheart had been an incredible witch with a keen mind and sharp wit. She might just be Hermione's next hero, but regrettably a quick skim of the book didn't turn up what she needed. It was excruciatingly difficult to not get sidetracked by some of the wonderful material, but she had to force herself to hide it in her trunk again.

That was what had brought her to the library early on a Monday. She had in fact been waiting outside for it to open at 6AM, much to the annoyance of Madam Pince. Once she entered, though, she realized that she didn't really know where to start — she didn't have a specific magical topic to research. So she decided to start with something that might only be barely related, but would at least be straightforward: marriage.

So far, that had been a bust. The library had several shelves of books on marriage laws, marriage traditions, marriage vows, marriage bonds, and the like, but none of that touched on her own problems. The material on marriage bonds at least looked interesting, so she spent a bit of extra time reading that.

_In a properly performed magical marriage ritual, the marriage celebrant uses his or her own magic to draw together and create a bond between the magics of the wizard and witch. Over time, this bond will draw the couple closer together in all ways. It produces many positive psychological, emotional, physical, and of course magical effects. The more compatible a wizard and witch are, the stronger their bond will be to start with, and the stronger it will grow over time._

_Of course, even after many decades of marriage, a marriage bond is never as strong as the naturally occurring soul bond. Although little is known about soul bonds, except of course to those couples privileged enough to be part of one, they are believed to be a creation of Magic itself to help a couple achieve some destiny, and Magic would never set a couple on any path without providing them with the tools and power necessary to achieve their goals. The marriage bond, which was created to imitate a soul bond, is also designed to provide a couple with the psychological and emotional tools necessary to achieve a successful marriage. ..._

_While the marriage ritual designates the wizard's magic as dominating and controlling the bond, it is possible in cases of especially weak-willed wizards and strong-willed witches that the witch's magic eventually assumes the dominant role. Few believe that a bond of true equals can exist because, as everyone knows, true equality is not a natural state. The magically stronger will always dominate and control: that is the natural order of things in society, in family, and in marriage. Attempts by a couple to create unnatural equality in their bond will necessarily weaken both the bond and the marriage, to the detriment of all. ..._

_Whether or not souls are also bound together during the creation of a magical marriage bond is a matter of some debate, but most believe that our magic is tied to our souls and thus also believe that as our magic is bound with another's, so also is our soul bound with another's. This one reason is why the rare but naturally occurring bond between a wizard and a witch is traditionally called a "soul bond." The other, of course, is the fact that knowledge and understanding of that bond is believed to be locked into the souls of the couples who are involved, thus preventing others from speaking of it openly._

She made a note to do further research on magical bonds later, just for some light reading, but now she was stymied. For a few seconds she considered asking Madam Pince if there were any other books by D. Tempest Pureheart, but she thought better of it. She knew she shouldn't let her excitement lead her into making hasty mistakes. _Besides, I got enough funny looks when I asked about books on marriage — as if the librarian thought_ _ **I**_ _were looking to get married soon myself! Honestly!_

_Ah, well, I'm only part way through the library's resources on marriage anyway. I'd better get to breakfast before Jasmine starts to worry — I'll come back during the break after Herbology in a couple of hours and pick up where I left off..._

* * *

**Monday, December 14, 1994, Late Morning.**

"Look, up in the sky! It's a bird!"

And, indeed, it was a bird — a brightly colored bird that wouldn't normally be caught dead in Scotland even in the middle of the (depressingly short) summer, let alone winter. What made its sudden presence more strange was the fact that it clearly had a letter tied to its leg, but post typically arrived during breakfast, not in the middle of the day while students walked between classes — even if they were walking outside.

Fear and happiness warred in Jasmine Potter at the sight. She thought she knew what the presence of such a bird meant: a message from Sirius Black. She was of course excited at the prospect of hearing from her godfather, but she was afraid that such a colorful and attention-grabbing means of communication would cause him to be caught.

"Jasmine," came a hiss from beside her, "what does he think he's doing, sending letters with a bird like that?"

"I know, Hermione, but there's nothing I can do about it, now is there?" Hoping to get the exchange over with as quickly as possible, Jasmine held out her arm to provide the tropical bird a place to perch and give up its burden. When it landed, she could see how bedraggled and put out the poor thing was. "There's a cozy owlery for you to rest in, if you want. I won't ask you to wait for a reply."

The bird gave a clearly offended look, as if it were insulted that anyone would think that it would hang around here for a second longer than absolutely necessary. With a couple of quick beats of its wings it was airborne again, and within a few seconds it was already a distant speck in the grey Scottish sky.

Jasmine hardly paid any attention, though, because she was far too interested in seeing what her godfather had to say.

"Hey, scarhead, is that letter another guy turning down a marriage contract with you?" If the smug, arrogant voice weren't so recognizable, the insults certainly would be. _Malfoy needs to get someone new to write his material,_ Jasmine thought sourly to herself. _But at least the Slytherins came out of the castle long enough after us that they didn't see the bird delivering this._

"I'm sorry, Mr. Malfoy, but I cannot divulge confidential business correspondence to you," Jasmine explained in a haughty voice. "Someday, when you grow up, maybe you'll be permitted a voice in how your family's meager holdings are managed. If such a time comes, perhaps then you'll understand what I'm talking about. Until then, however, perhaps you should concentrate on those few, simple subjects you can handle."

Turning away from the sputtering Slytherin, Jasmine continued down the path to Hagrid's hut where their Care of Magical Creatures class was being held. The subject was still Blast-Ended Skrewts, and everyone was counting the days until some student or other was killed by Hagrid's latest pets.

Sirius' letter would have to wait until later.

* * *

**Monday, December 14, 1994, Lunch.**

Normally, watching Malfoy being chased by a Blast-Ended Skrewt while his trousers were on fire would produce plenty of lunchtime conversations and laughter. Today, however, the girls had a letter from Sirius Black to read, and that took precedence. Unfortunately, their growing friendship with Neville and Ginny threatened to interfere: unlike Ron, neither of them had been informed about Sirius' innocence. That was a problem that would have to be rectified.

"Sorry, but this is a secret that we've had for a while." Hermione looked to Jasmine for guidance — it was her godfather, after all. She should be the one to decide what to do.

"This doesn't only involve us, it involves the safety of someone else — life and death, as a matter of fact. And no, I'm not exaggerating." Jasmine stopped to think hard for a moment. "To be quite honest, I'm not comfortable saying anything at all without getting their permission first. It's their life that's potentially on the line."

Ginny and Neville looked at each other with somber expressions. Clearly, when it came to Hermione and Jasmine, there were secrets and then there were Secrets. They didn't really have any choice but to agree, so they left the two witches alone during lunch so they could have some privacy to read whatever had them so agitated.

Huddling close together at the end of the Gryffindor table, Hermione and Jasmine read the latest letter from Sirius...

Hey, Kitten!

Great job, kiddo! I'm so proud of you for beating that dragon. Not even James would have thought of trying to out-fly a Hungarian Horntail, though Lily would have hexed him into next week if he'd even suggested it. I probably would have done the same to you myself, if I had been there, so it's a good thing I wasn't.

Not that that will last much longer. Being so far away from you has been a lot tougher than I imagined it would be, but knowing that you're in danger in that blasted tournament has me at my wits end. What was Dumbledore thinking, forcing you to participate? I know that I can't be a lot of help while I'm still wanted by so many people, but I can't be any help at all if I'm not close by.

So lock up the liquor and hide the women, 'cuz Padfoot is comin' back to town! Keep an eye out for me, sweetie, you never know if I'll be around the next corner.

Love,

Uncle Paddy

"Oh, no," moaned Hermione. "This is not good. This is **so** not good."

Jasmine couldn't bring herself to disagree, though she wished she could. She never let on how much she missed Sirius... or maybe it was just the _idea_ of Sirius. She hardly knew Sirius the person at all, but the idea of a living connection to her parents — someone who might value her for herself — was just too precious to give up.

For a few, blissful minutes last year, she actually believed that someone would take her away from the Dursleys. It had been seemed like the fulfillment of a dream that the poor orphan girl had been having for as long as she could remember, but a combination of bad circumstances and a petty potions professor conspired to snatch the dream from her before she could fully grasp it.

She wanted Sirius safe. She also wanted Sirius back. She wasn't certain, though, which she should focus on.

* * *

**Tuesday, December 15, 1994, Late Morning.**

For the fourth time in three minutes, Jasmine checked her watch. "Where is she?"

"I don't know," answered Neville, "but it's really unlike her to cut things so close. If she doesn't get here in the next minute, she'll be late, and Professor McGonagall won't go easy on her."

Just as he finished saying that, Hermione came rushing into the Transfiguration classroom. Almost completely out of breath, she sat at her usual table with Jasmine and Neville before hurriedly pulling out her book, parchment, and quill. "Where were you?" Jasmine asked. "I was getting really worried."

Hermione blushed and flashed her a wide smile, but before she could answer, Professor McGonagall stood up in front of the class and called for quiet. She then began her lesson on animate to inanimate transfiguration and the differences from inanimate to animate transfiguration. Jasmine barely listened, though, because she was too busy thinking about Hermione, where she had been, and what would cause her to keep smiling like that through the whole class.

At the end of the lesson, she was finally able to resume her interrogation. "Not here," Hermione insisted, "wait until we're alone." So Hermione, accompanied by Jasmine and Neville, took their time walking to the Great Hall for lunch, letting everyone else get there well ahead of them.

"So?" Jasmine asked again.

"I got a date to the Yule Ball! Somebody asked me! Somebody actually asked me!" It was clear that Hermione was ready to explode with excitement. She was practically bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet, something she normally only did at the prospect of visiting a new book store.

"Who?" asked Jasmine.

"Oh, you'll never guess, not in a million years!" Apparently deciding not to even let them try, she blurted, "It's Viktor Krum!"

This news rendered her two friends speechless.

"Yes, I know, I never would have expected it myself," Hermione went on. "Isn't it amazing? I've noticed that he's been spending time in the library, usually when I'm there. Turns out, he was deliberately watching me, hoping to catch me alone so he could talk to me. He only worked up the courage today during my morning break. His English isn't very good, so he stumbled through his invitation, but it was still really sweet. He's very polite and respectful, I think we'll have a wonderful time. Oh, I can't wait, it's going to be so much fun. Me, on a date with Viktor Krum! An international celebrity!"

The whole time that Hermione was rambling and Neville was congratulating her, Jasmine silently stared straight ahead. She didn't say anything. She couldn't even think anything.

"Jasmine?" Hermione asked, once she noticed that the third member of their group was being quiet. "Is something wrong?"

"No, Hermione, of course not," she answered quickly. _What is the matter with me? Why can't I be happy for her? I knew she'd be going to the ball — I_ _ **want**_ _her to go. Of course someone was going to ask her, I'm not the only person in the school to notice how good-looking she is. So why do I suddenly want to throttle Viktor Krum, burn the body, and dump the ashes in the lake?_ "I'm happy for you, I really am. I'm sure he'll show you a wonderful time at the ball."

This seemed to satisfy Hermione, who instantly resumed her happy babbling, though Neville gave Jasmine a curious look. "Oh, I know, and guess what else is great? Since Viktor is a champion, I'll be able to sit with you at the champions' table! But that means that I'll also have to join the opening dance, so I'll have to practice my dancing even harder. You'll help me, won't you Neville? Of course you will, thanks. I'm going to have so much to do to get ready. I'll definitely need..."

The other two had stopped paying close attention by this point, not entirely sure that this was really Hermione Granger anymore. "Maybe we should check for polyjuice," suggested Neville in a whisper. "Hermione would never go on and on about dresses and makeup like that." Jasmine nodded in agreement, but she wasn't listening closely to him, either. She was too preoccupied with thoughts about Viktor Krum, standing in front of her, gasping for breath because her hands were tightly wrapped around his throat.

* * *

**Tuesday, December 15, 1994, Late Evening.**

Part-way through the evening dancing lesson, Neville stopped and brought Hermione back to the other two girls. "All right," he announced, "I think that Hermione and I have done this step enough with each other that we have a fair idea of what we're doing. We still need more practice, but we're doing well enough to try it with you two," he said, gesturing to Ginny and Jasmine.

Holding out his hand to Jasmine, he continued, "As I said before, I'll focus on dancing with you because we'll have to be good together when we help open the ball." Pulling her to the middle of the room, he started explaining how he wanted her to set her feet and then how they would be moving for the first dance. While he was doing this, Hermione was giving the same explanation to Ginny on the other side of the dancing area.

After moving around in vaguely dance-like fashion, and with a nearly tolerable amount of toe-mashing, Neville decided to risk distracting Jasmine by asking a question that had been bothering him most of the day. "Jasmine, are you OK?"

"What? Yeah, fine."

"Now we'll start moving left. No, my left. **Other** left. You've been acting a bit odd since lunch. Or maybe it was Transfiguration, when Hermione announced her date with Krum. **Ow!** "

"Sorry."

"S'ok, it was that foot's turn. So, are you fighting with Hermione?" Neville asked.

"Of course not!" Jasmine insisted.

"Well, that's good. Now, let's start moving gradually towards the back. So, is the problem Krum? **Ow!** "

"Sorry."

"Maybe we should sit down for a bit," Neville suggested.

"Sorry."

"No, it's OK, I'm just... tired. Been a long day."

"Oh, good. Me, too," Jasmine replied.

Neville let Jasmine walk ahead of him so she wouldn't see him limp. On both legs. She was so distracted now, though, that it probably wouldn't have mattered.

"Are you going to tell me what's wrong," he asked as they sat down and watched the other two practice.

"No. Maybe. Oh, I don't even know what's wrong. I just... I don't understand what I'm feeling and it's really bothering me."

Neville sighed as he saw Ginny and Hermione start to walk over to them. "Maybe we should continue this when we're alone. Sometimes talking about something can help you understand it better because you have to put your feelings into words."

Jasmine looked over at him, and for the first time since early that morning, her frown was replaced with a soft smile. "Yeah, you might be right. Thanks, Neville. We'll do that."

The rest of the evening proceeded with considerably less annoyance radiating off of Jasmine, though everyone could see that something was still bothering her. Well, Ginny and Neville could see it; Hermione continued to be distracted by thoughts about her coming Yule Ball date.

Because Neville was still limping a bit at the end, Jasmine offered to walk with him while the other two went on ahead. It wasn't entirely a ruse, because his feet really did still hurt; but it also provided a convenient way to talk without an audience. It further allowed them to talk while walking, and Neville knew that Jasmine thought and planned best while in motion. She was someone who always had to be doing and acting, not simply sitting around pondering. It was one of the areas where she was the exact opposite of Hermione, who had to plan, come up with possible problems, plan contingencies for all those problems, then revise the entire thing just to be sure — and only then would consent to get up and start moving.

"So, Jasmine," Neville prompted in the face of the girl's silence, "What's going on?"

"Like I said, I'm not sure, but I'm incredibly upset and distracted. I just don't know why."

"What's distracting you?" he asked.

"Thoughts of Krum," Jasmine said. "I keep imagining strangling him. Or setting him on fire. Feeding him to a basilisk has been a fun fantasy. Then there's Devil's Snare, but he might know how to escape that. Say, are there any plants in the greenhouses that would kill him in an especially painful and messy way?"

Neville's eyes grew larger and larger while listening to Jasmine recite the litany of deaths she fantasized about arranging for Viktor Krum. "I, uh, didn't realize that you were quite so competitive with the other champions..."

"What? No, it's nothing like that," responded Jasmine quickly. "I'd like to win, but I don't want to chop him into little bits and feed them to Fluffy just because he's competing against me. All this started only today, for some reason."

"Today? You mean, like this morning? Before lunch?" Neville asked, comprehension dawning on him.

"Yeah. And now, every time Hermione mentions the name 'Krum,' I want to rip off his arm and beat him to death with the wet end."

Neville started looking a bit green. Given how often Hermione had been mentioning her date, that was a lot of beatings. Neville had seen Jasmine angry before, but he'd never seen her quite so blunt about wanting to hurt someone. It couldn't possibly be healthy. "Jasmine, I think you might be jealous of Krum," he suggested tentatively.

Jasmine shook her head. "I thought about that, but why would I be jealous?" Jasmine asked. "Hermione's with me, and the date with Krum isn't real. I knew she would get a date to the ball. I _want_ her to have a date to the ball — if she didn't, I wouldn't be able to enjoy it myself."

"Well, _you_ know that the date isn't supposed to be real, but are you sure _Krum_ knows that? Does _he_ know that they are only going as friends? I don't remember Hermione mentioning that she talked to him about that." Neville paused for a moment, looking back on his friend's behavior over the course of the day. "In fact, Hermione hasn't been behaving like it's a fake date. She's been acting like it's real. Seems odd, now that I think about it."

Jasmine frowned at this. Finally, she said reluctantly, "You might be right. I'm not exactly used to having anything to be jealous about, so it's hard to know for sure what I'm feeling; but it sounds about right. I should probably talk with her."

"Good idea," Neville said as they approached the entrance to the Gryffindor common room. "I'll leave you to it, then. G'night!" he added before they went to their separate dorms. Once Jasmine got to her room, though, she saw that the curtains around Hermione's bed were already closed. Assuming she was asleep, Jasmine chose to wait until the next morning to talk to her.

* * *

Hermione was not, in fact, asleep yet. During the dancing lesson, Hermione had reached a startling and embarrassing realization: she had no dress for the ball. Their school list in August had included dress robes, but she had been certain that she wouldn't go to whatever silly event they were needed for so chose not to spend the money. Her parents had argued quite strongly that she should do it anyway, and that it would be better to have the dress and not need it than to need the dress and not have it, but Hermione had refused to listen.

Unfortunately, she didn't think that she had brought enough money to buy a dress locally, so she'd have to write to her parents and apologize in order to ask for them to send cash. She'd be eating more than a little bit of crow.

On top of that, she was faced with having to explain _why_ she needed the dress, which meant explaining that she had a date. _This is going to be so embarrassing_ , Hermione thought. _After all the arguments I had with mum about getting an updated version of 'The Talk' despite not having any intentions to start dating, and how I am way too committed to school to care anything about boys or romance. I'm not sure I'll ever live down having to admit that I have a date to a ball — not even when we're only going as friends._ Sometimes she couldn't tell whether having parents who treated her like an adult was more helpful or more annoying, especially when explaining sexual development and such.

Maybe she could avoid talking about the date part. _They don't need to know that I have a date, do they? They don't even need to know that it's a ball — I can just tell them that it's a formal affair, and I need to go... because of Jasmine! Yes, that's it! That even gives me a good excuse for why I'm going, since they already know that she's my best friend and was entered into a tournament against her will. A little sympathy will surely reduce their desire to gloat over having told me that I should get a dress, too. Hah, perfect!_

* * *

**Wednesday, December 16, 1994, Early Morning.**

Waking slowly, Jasmine was reminded of the problems she had had the previous day and vowed to find time to talk to Hermione so they could resolve any misunderstandings. She hated the feelings she'd experienced the previous day and had no idea how to process them. She just wanted to be rid of them and was convinced that talking to Hermione was the best way to achieve that. _Finding the time will be tough, though_ , she thought. _Wednesdays are pretty busy for us._

Climbing out from behind her bed curtains, she was assaulted by one of the most annoying sounds she'd ever had the misfortune of hearing: giggling and squeeing teen girls. Even though she was a teen girl herself, she always hated those high-pitched sounds. Whenever Lavender and Parvati got started, Jasmine always made it a point to get out of the dorm as fast as possible. Unfortunately, when she heard the subject of their squeals, she was stopped dead in her tracks.

"Krum is so handsome and dreamy, I can't believe he'll be here at Hogwarts all year."

"Oh, I know, and he's so mature, too — not like all the other _boys_. I'll bet he'll be gallant with his date."

"So you think the rumors are true and he has a date now?"

"Oh, absolutely! Padma told me that Fay told her that she heard from Mandy that she overheard Daphne tell Tracey that she heard from Flora and Hestia who were told by Natalie that she overheard Krum ask someone in the library. But she didn't get a chance to see who it was."

"Squeeeee! That's so romantic!"

All during the rather confusing conversation, Jasmine kept getting angrier and angrier. She could barely think straight, she was so furious. _Romantic, huh? Krum thinks he can get away with being romantic with my Hermione, huh?_ When she looked over in the direction of Hermione's bed, she saw a smug, happy look on her face. _Is she... is she_ _ **happy**_ _about this? Did she_ _ **enjoy**_ _being romanced by that Bulgarian gorilla?_ With that, the dam broke, and all thoughts of having a calm, mature conversation with her girlfriend went right out the window.

" **Romantic** ," Jasmine half-growled and half-shouted. "What's so **romantic** about asking a person out on a date in a **library** of all places?" She ruthlessly shoved aside the knowledge that Hermione loved libraries and would see them as excellent locations for a bit of romance.

Everyone else in the dorm stopped and stared in shock. Jasmine only raised her voice like this when she was extremely agitated, and this seemed to come out of nowhere. For no reason anyone could discern, Jasmine had gone from asleep to murderous in a matter of seconds.

"And why are you fawning all over that gorilla, anyway? What's so special about him? He chases little gold balls for a living. What kind of career is that?" The fact that Jasmine was a seeker, too, didn't seem to occur to the ranting witch.

"He can barely speak English. Who knows if he's any more articulate in Bulgarian? Maybe there are good reasons why he barely opens his mouth and spends most of his time just scowling at everyone. With that forehead and the single eyebrow, I have to wonder about his recent heritage, too."

The other three girls just gaped open-mouthed at this unexpected vitriol. Lavender and Parvati were curious about what prompted it, but they didn't say anything lest Jasmine's anger be directed at them instead. Hermione, she saw, was gaping as well, but there was also a sheen in her eyes and a look of... sadness? Hurt? Betrayal? Jasmine wasn't sure, too confused by the battle between rage and regret (and triumph?) she herself was experiencing.

Rather than continue, Jasmine simply grabbed her clothes and stomped off to the showers. When she exited later, the dorm was empty. She'd be walking down to breakfast alone, it seemed. _Fine!_ _I don't need them anyway!_

When she arrived in the Great Hall, she found Hermione sitting with Lavender and Parvati rather than with Neville and Ginny. When she joined the latter two, she had no explanation to offer for Hermione's behavior or her own bad mood. The gossip queens would soon spread the story across the school, but few paid it much attention.

This pattern repeated throughout the day. In double Charms that morning and double Runes in the afternoon, Hermione sat with anyone other than Jasmine — the first time anyone had seen that happen since early in first year. During lunch and dinner, Hermione once again sat with other girls while avoiding her best friend. When she came to the dancing lesson that evening, she made a point of formally greeting Neville and Ginny while ignoring Jasmine. She didn't speak a single word to the Girl Who Lived the entire time. Yet she did look at her when Jasmine wasn't watching, the war between hurt and anger written on her face for anyone who cared to notice.

It was a long, **long** day.


	8. Green Eyed Monster

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This is important, so I'm pointing it out in case anyone missed it. The book Hermione was reading in the last chapter says there are "effects" associated with soul bonds, including "magical effects." This will include an increase in power, but don't start thinking that it's a simple "soul bond = super witches" situation. Magic is at least partially sentient and creates soul bonds so that a couple can achieve some destiny. But what's the point of being given a task without also being given the tools you need? That would be like knowing that your student is going to have to fight a powerful, skilled Dark Lord but refusing to give them special training. :)
> 
> So power grows as the bond develops, but it comes from Magic, not the bond (where else would magical power ultimately come from, anyway?). Being able to properly control and channel the power can be attributed to the emotional and psychological effects of the bond, but not the power itself. And yes, while Jasmine still has the canon prophecy/destiny, there is yet more in store for Jasmine and Hermione as a couple, so they'll definitely need the help. Oh, and "power" isn't only about fighting. Just sayin'...
> 
> Recommendation: This chapter's recommended fic is "A Different Halloween" by robst. I doubt there's a single H/Hr fan who isn't already familiar with robst's stories, but I wanted to single this out as one of his best. Lily Potter and Emma Granger run into each other on Halloween, 1981, and Hermione immediately gloms onto Harry, refusing to let go. History is changed and Hermione has never been more adorable.

**Thursday, December 17, 1994, Morning.**

For the second day in a row, it looked like Jasmine and Hermione were avoiding each other. As on Wednesday, Jasmine walked to breakfast alone while Hermione sat with other girls. During Transfiguration, Hermione partnered with others while ignoring Jasmine, just as she had during Charms and Runes the previous day. By this point, the tension between the two Gryffindors was palpable and obvious to everyone. Professor McGonagall was going to hold them back after class anyway, and when she did so she asked, "Is everything alright between you two? I sense some tension."

"We're fine," Hermione answered quickly. Jasmine just nodded stiffly.

Minerva raised an eyebrow at that, not believing them but also not wanting to probe too deeply into a personal matter. "Very well, if you're sure. I wanted to let you know that I need to make a change in our meeting this weekend. Instead of Sunday afternoon, like before, I'll need to meet you two Sunday morning. Will that be acceptable?"

Both girls agreed and left quickly when they were dismissed. Minerva was at a loss to understand what could have happened between the two — they hadn't been this estranged even last year during the broomstick incident. She could only hope that they found a way to resolve the problem sooner rather than later.

* * *

**Thursday, December 17, 1994, Afternoon.**

Draco Malfoy decided that lunch would be a good time to add his two knuts to the situation. Somewhere along the way he had found out that the girls seemed to be upset with each other, and he thought it would be an excellent idea to fan the flames and hopefully make matters worse.

Calling out to Jasmine as she walked alone into the Great Hall, Malfoy said, "Hey, scarhead! Did you finally see sense and dump that buck-toothed mudblood as a friend? I know you can't do anything to make up for your own deficient blood status, but at least you aren't letting that mudblood drag you down any further."

Sitting not far away at the Slytherin table, Viktor Krum couldn't help but overhear. Contrary to popular opinion, he was not a thick-headed jock. He didn't talk much, but it wasn't due to poor language skills or low intelligence — it was because he'd been taught at an early age that it's better to watch and observe than to speak out and say the wrong thing. It was a perfectly Slytherin attitude but contrasted sharply with the behavior of many actual Slytherins — Draco Malfoy in particular.

Having spent a lot of time over the past month and a half in Hogwarts, watching people and listening to what they had to say, he felt that he had become well informed as to what was going on. He knew that Malfoy was using his standard epithets. He knew that the missing person Malfoy must be referring to was Hermione, the girl he had just asked to the ball the previous day — though he didn't understand why she was missing from Potter's side.

He knew what 'mudblood' meant, too. It was time to stop merely observing and start acting. Even if he didn't already think she was a nice girl who didn't deserve such treatment, this was his date that Malfoy was talking about. If nothing else, he needed to take decisive action in order to preserve his own honor and reputation going forward.

Moving far more quickly and silently than one would expect from someone his size, even for a seeker, Krum was suddenly behind the still-sitting Malfoy and had his large hand wrapped tightly around the back of the smaller boy's neck. His fingers reached most of the way around, though not quite enough to dig into the soft tissue in the front. "What you say about Her-my-own-ninny?"

Malfoy squeaked in surprise, though he didn't quite drop his haughty demeanor. He had no idea just how much danger he was in at the moment. "What? You mean Granger? Yes, her, she's a mudblood who hangs around with Potter. What of it?"

Krum started to squeeze, saying, "Mudblood. Yes. I not like this word. You stop using. You stop insulting Her-my-own-ninny."

"Stop? Why?" Malfoy's brain still hadn't woken up to the danger. "She **is** a mudblood. Why shouldn't I say so?"

"And you are small, like bug," Krum said, squeezing hard enough now to elicit a gasp from the boy. Leaning over so he could talk quietly, Krum added, "Why should I not squish?"

Malfoy finally got the message. Suddenly he was convinced that Viktor Krum _would_ squish him and that there was little he could do about it. It was a sobering realization, and for once, he shut up.

Jasmine had simply stopped and stared for the whole exchange. She'd never seen anyone adopt a threatening attitude towards the blonde Slytherin and she wanted to relish every second of it, no matter how much the underlying context confused and upset her. Turning back to the Gryffindor table, her eyes immediately found Hermione and saw what could only be described as happiness, gratitude, and admiration on her face.

That was the absolute last thing she needed to see just then. Spinning around, Jasmine practically ran out of the Great Hall, completely missing the hurt look on Hermione's face when she saw her best friend run away from her.

* * *

Over at the Ravenclaw table, French champion Fleur Delacour didn't miss any of the events that had just transpired. Like Krum, she was widely underestimated by those around her. Between being veela and blonde, she tended to be dismissed by most as an airhead. This was an attitude she had cultivated and often used to her advantage. People tended to talk more freely around those they dismissed as being beneath them, so Fleur had become as good as Krum at watching and listening.

Being veela, though, Fleur noticed different things. Even from the first day, when she exchanged a few words with the green-eyed Gryffindor during the feast that welcomed the visiting schools, she could sense a connection between her and the bushy-haired witch who was always by her side. She couldn't understand exactly what it was, but it was there — like a soft whisper on the wind, promising something, but she was unclear as to what.

About a week ago, she noticed that the connection had changed. It had become clearer and more distinct, like a melody on the wind now, but she still couldn't decipher what it meant. If she were a mature veela she might have been able to interpret it by this point, but being so young, her abilities weren't strong enough. She had been hoping, though, that whatever it was would develop enough over the course of the year for her to understand it. She was very curious because she didn't think she'd ever come across anything quite like it.

Now, however, it appeared that the connection was in disarray. It was still there, but it had become disjointed — like parts of a song that were no longer in harmony. She didn't know why this had happened and doubted there was anything she could do to help. All she could do was keep watching and see how matters progressed. Maybe she could write to her _maman_ and _grandmere_ to see what they had to say. This was proving to be a very interesting year, even aside from the tournament.

* * *

**Friday, December 18, 1994, Morning.**

Neville was at a complete loss over what to do. For the past two days, his friends had been refusing to talk to each other — not even during the two dance lessons that they'd held since this problem started. Fortunately he'd already intended to focus his instruction time on Jasmine so there was no worry about trying to put the two together, but still... this just made no sense. He knew Jasmine was jealous of Krum, but he had thought she was going to talk to Hermione and work out any misunderstandings.

Something had happened to mess that plan up, obviously. Unfortunately, Jasmine refused to talk to him about it, and when he pressed she got an angry, hurt look in her eyes and walked away. He only tried that once.

He thought that maybe Ginny would be able to help — after all, she was a girl, right? Girls understand girl problems and girl arguments, don't they? Apparently not — Ginny didn't understand what was going on any better than he did. If it were two blokes, they could just fight, go get healed, and everything would be fine. Were all girls this complicated?

Ginny did give him some things to think about, though. When Jasmine told them all last Saturday about her home life, she had left out quite a bit. According to Ginny, during the summer between second and third years, her brothers had used a flying car to rescue Jasmine from her muggle relatives. While there, they discovered bars on her window, a door sealed with multiple locks, and a flap at floor level for delivering food. It sounded like she was being kept a prisoner.

All of her school stuff had been locked in a cupboard that the twins had to break into, and they apparently found much more than just her trunk. They flat-out refused to tell Ginny what exactly they'd seen, but it had been enough to make the normally ebullient twins very somber and reserved. She had no idea what would cause such a reaction, but it scared her, and that was more than enough to worry Neville. He himself hadn't been treated very well by some relatives growing up, but this sounded far, far worse. He thought it might help explain quite a few things about Jasmine's behavior, if he could just figure out how.

Neville had not been prepared for the new direction his life was taking. He grew up alone and isolated, raised by a stern and distant grandmother who seemed to wish that he had been his father instead of just Neville. In Hogwarts he was usually an outsider, not very highly regarded by many who thought he was barely more than a squib. He had never developed much self-confidence because he had never been forced to — at least, not until this term. Early in November he'd found his courage and announced — against an overwhelming tide of public opinion — that he didn't believe Jasmine had cheated to get into the tournament.

It was the hardest thing he'd ever done, especially since he chose to do it publicly in the Gryffindor common room and in front of many people who **did** think she cheated, but he had never regretted it. Ever since, he'd been included more and more in Jasmine's activities, becoming an integral member of her very small circle of friends. He'd even been put in charge of teaching something. Him! Neville Longbottom! He'd never been trusted enough to be put in charge of anything before (except Trevor the toad, who kept escaping). Then there were the secrets he'd been entrusted with — explosive secrets that only one other person had been told about.

None of this had prepared Neville to deal with two teen witches who had stopped speaking to each other. To be fair, few boys his age — muggle or magical — would be in any better position. It wasn't his fault that they weren't talking, but he felt responsible for helping them reconcile. He was the only student who knew just how serious this disagreement really was because only he knew what they actually meant to each other. So it was up to him to help them resolve this, because he was the only one who could.

_Besides_ , he thought simply, _they're my friends. I can't just do nothing._

Having finally come to a decision, but still not knowing what to do about it, Neville was distracted from further reflection when Headmaster Dumbledore stood up at the head table and started tapping his glass to get everyone's attention. "Students, I apologize for interrupting your breakfast, but I have an important announcement to make. Because of the coming Yule Ball and the students' need to be properly attired, we will be having a Hogsmeade weekend starting tomorrow — both Saturday and Sunday and for extended hours. If you know of anyone who isn't present, please ensure that they are informed. Details will be posted in your common rooms. Thank you."

The volume of conversations increased several-fold as Dumbledore sat down. It seemed that everyone was excited about the prospect of spending more time in Hogsmeade in a couple of days, whether they needed anything for the ball or not.

* * *

Albus Dumbledore looked around the Great Hall, taking in the increased excitement of the students over the announcement about the extra Hogsmeade days. Since he no longer had time to teach, he tended to look forward to things like this because they allowed him to once more feel the energy and passion of youth. And this was just an announcement about shopping! The Yule Ball itself was still to come and promised to be even better.

It was also times like this that he wondered if he might be growing out of touch with today's youth. Without regular, daily contact with young people — contact which he tended not to have, given the all-encompassing nature of his many administrative responsibilities — it was easy to lose touch. It had been so long since he'd been a youth himself, and there was so much of those days that he'd rather just forget...

He had no time for regrets, however. There were too many things at home and abroad which required his input and management. There were too many things which he alone knew and could deal with. It was a heavy burden, but he was willing to shoulder it because there simply wasn't anyone else. He did what he must because he was the only one who could.

Looking over at the Gryffindor table, he frowned when he noticed that once again Miss Potter was sitting separately from Miss Granger, just as had been the case recently with the youngest Mr. Weasley. _It's bad enough that she's estranged from one close friend_ , he thought sadly, _but now two? This is not good, not good at all. Miss Potter needs her friends. The animosity from some others in the school will hopefully thicken her skin a bit, but going friendless would be tragic. This blasted tournament is causing enough problems in her life, she doesn't need any more._

Dumbledore had hoped that the Yule Ball might actually bring a little light and gaiety into her life. He hoped it would do that for all the students, of course, but he recognized that she needed them far more than most. _Now, instead of excited and happy, she looks withdrawn and morose_ , he lamented, _and right now I can't think of a single thing I can do to help._

Sighing, he decided that he wasn't really hungry anymore and stood up from the table. With one last, sad glance at the Girl Who Lived, he made his way back to his office where he hoped that inspiration might come to him.

* * *

**Friday, December 18, 1994, Late Morning.**

All through the last day of classes for that term, people kept staring at Hermione Granger. Both in the halls and during class, students — mostly female students — would look at her then start whispering to each other. Neville eventually concluded that the "secret" of whom Viktor Krum had asked to the ball wasn't a secret anymore. After Krum's actions in the Great Hall the day before, that was probably to be expected.

When he looked at Hermione herself, he guessed that she had realized what was happening much sooner than he had. He wouldn't say that she looked like she enjoyed all the stares and whispers, but she didn't look very upset, either. It seemed that, at the very least, she was pleased that something good was happening to her — something good in a normal sense, that is.

As Neville thought about it, he realized that most girls might like to be taken to a formal ball by a dashing, handsome young man. Hermione Granger may not have been an especially "girly" girl, gossiping all the time and worrying about things like clothes or makeup, but that didn't make her immune from such fantasies — especially when it was dropped right in her lap like that. Neville didn't claim to know much about girls, but he thought he'd be pretty flattered if, say, Fleur Delacour had asked him to the ball (at least for the two seconds or so before he completely panicked and passed out), so it didn't seem like too much of a stretch to think that this was what Hermione was feeling.

The next puzzle was Jasmine. Her jealousy was much easier to understand — he had that figured out even before Jasmine herself. If he liked Hermione the way Jasmine did, he'd probably feel a bit murderous after learning that Krum had asked her to the ball, too. But why wasn't Jasmine trying to talk to Hermione? And why hadn't Jasmine been able to understand Hermione the way Neville had? Unless he was wrong in what he thought was going on with Hermione?

Neville sighed and tried to force his thoughts back to Flitwick's lecture. Why were girls so complicated?

* * *

**Friday, December 18, 1994, Evening.**

Neville Longbottom was _so_ glad the day was over. He was certain that he'd never had to endure a longer Friday in his entire life. On top of everything else, the day had ended with double Potions. Hermione had been avoiding partnering with Jasmine in their other classes almost all week, but that was never going to work with Snape. He didn't tolerate such changes, and the knowledge that the once-close girls were having problems only made him happier to force them to work together.

It would have been a disaster no matter what they tried to brew, but Snape had chosen today of all days to teach them how to brew poison antidotes — and to force the students to test out their own antidotes. Jasmine and Hermione were both expected to live, but... no, he really didn't want to think about it again. He'd already submitted a signed statement for the investigation and that was the end of it, as far as he was concerned. He was just happy he, at least, still had all his hair. Others hadn't been so lucky.

When he entered the Gryffindor common room, he saw a catatonic Ron sitting the by the fireplace while his sister Ginny kept snapping her fingers in front of his face. "C'mon Ron, snap out of it."

"What's going on? What's wrong with Ron? Is this about the, er...?" Neville didn't want to say it out loud. If he didn't say it, he could pretend that it hadn't really happened, right?

"No, worse," Ginny answered. "After he was released, he saw Fleur Delacour near the castle front doors and for some reason got the bright idea to ask her out to the ball."

"What?" Neville hadn't seen this coming. "Did he really ask her out?"

"Not exactly," said Ginny with a grimace. "He more... shouted it at her. Well, he shouted something. It sounded like 'You. Ball. Me.' I guess it was an invitation to the ball. Then he just ran. I followed to make sure he was alright, so I don't know how she reacted."

Neville tried not to laugh, he really did. He had a lot of sympathy for a bloke who wanted to ask out a pretty bird but was scared. Still, it was a funny situation. Neville was positive that even he couldn't make such a hash of asking someone out.

Neville gave the ginger Gryffindor boy an appraising look, then asked, "Assuming her answer is 'no,' Ron, what are you going to do now? Who's next on your list of potential dates?"

"Assuming?" Ron croaked out, showing signs of consciousness for the first time.

"Sure, you didn't stick around for her answer, so even if she was going to say yes, she might not do so now. But you don't know for sure, do you? She might be impressed that you had the stones to ask at all — impressed enough to even forgive you for running off. Maybe you should go back and check?"

A goofy grin started to spread across Ron's face. "Yeah, I should. Maybe she was impressed by me. Maybe she's out looking for me right now. I better go find her before she decides to give up and go with someone else!" With that, Ron jumped out of his chair and ran for the common room entrance.

"Neville!" shouted Ginny, half in exasperation and half in amusement. "I know I should probably laugh, but he _is_ my brother." She sighed and finally said, "I should follow him and make sure he doesn't hurt himself. At least, not too badly."

Once alone, Neville rocked back and forth a couple of times on the balls of his feet. "Hmmm..." he said softly to himself, "pranks aren't so bad after all."

* * *

Ginny didn't show up that evening for dance practice. _Maybe she's still trying to find Ron, who's trying to find Fleur, who's probably in hiding_ , thought Neville.

Jasmine and Hermione weren't there either, probably because they were still... _Better not to think about it,_ Neville stopped himself with a shudder. He considered just dancing by himself, but even to him that sounded a bit pathetic. He could afford to skip practice for one evening.

* * *

**Saturday, December 19, 1994, Afternoon.**

Jasmine and Hermione didn't return to the Gryffindor common room until after lunch on Saturday. By this point everyone in the castle had heard about what had happened in Potions the previous day, and absolutely no one wanted to ask the two witches about it. Some traumas just weren't meant to be shared.

Surprisingly, the two moved immediately to join Ron, Ginny, and Neville who were all sitting together at a table in the back of the common room. They didn't sit next to each other like they once would have, but the fact that they sat at the same table — and voluntarily — was remarkable. Of course, maybe it was merely because they were distracted by the events of the previous day.

The two fourth-year witches indeed looked very subdued. Neville was looking curious while Ginny was looking amused at her brother, who was still looking a bit anxious and panicked. He hadn't found Fleur after all and wisely decided to give up on the idea of asking her again. Suddenly, Ron had an epiphany — never a good sign for his immediate future.

"Say, Jasmine, you're a girl, aren't you?" Ron asked. Said witch, who was indeed a girl, turned very slowly and fixed her on-again, off-again friend with a hard glare, as if daring him to insert his foot just a little bit further.

Never one to turn down a dare, Ron continued, "I know you don't have a date to the ball. I mean, even Herms here has one — and with Krum, too!"

If it were possible to set someone on fire just by looking at them, Ron Weasley would have been reduced to a pile of ashes in short order. Everyone else recognized just how badly he was handling this — even Hermione looked horrified, though that may have been in part due to the use of "Herms" — but Ron marched gamely on.

"So, will you go with me to the ball? You have to have a date, right? If you keep waiting, there'll be no one left, and then what'll you do? Go with Snape?" Neville was certain that he could hear growling — actual growling — coming from somewhere deep in Jasmine's chest, and he was desperately trying to think of a way to defuse the situation in a way that let Ron keep all his bits intact.

"I'll have you know, Ronald Bilius Weasley, that I do have a date," Jasmine managed to get out through gritted teeth. "In fact, I was asked the very evening that the ball was announced. I've even said as much, more than once, and I think you were around to hear it."

"Pfft, you were just winding Malfoy up all those times you told him you had a date. You didn't mean it, I could tell. And who do you know well enough besides me that you'd accept a date with them that fast? I think you're just trying to cover up the fact that no one has asked you yet. No need to feel embarrassed about it, though, since I'm asking you now. I've solved all your problems."

These statements were accompanied by a broad, self-satisfied grin on the ginger Gryffindor's face, indicating that he didn't have the slightest idea of just how he sounded to the witch he was talking to — or indeed, to any witch in hearing distance. The group was starting to attract attention from the few Gryffindors who hadn't gone to Hogsmeade that day. Not everyone could hear the words being spoken, but most could easily recognize the signs of impending doom and started slowly moving away.

"You... you... you..." Jasmine could not come up with words that adequately expressed just how infuriated she was. "I can't believe how **fucking** inconsiderate people in this castle are. First Hermione and now you. Just... just..." Jasmine looked like she was about to spontaneously combust — not an entirely implausible scenario, as most reports of so-called spontaneous combustion are actually violent incidents of accidental magic. The fact that some of Jasmine's auburn hair seemed to start undulating and moving despite the absence of any wind didn't improve the image she was projecting. " **Gah!** " she finally shouted, reduced by Ron's words to little more than incoherent vocalizations.

At that she stormed off and left the common room, everyone watching after her wondering what to do. Ginny had had enough and decided to set her brother straight before he did something that resulted in serious, lasting harm to himself. Grabbing him by the ear, she said, "Come, dear brother of mine. First I'm going to explain a few things to you about how **not** to treat witches. Then I'm going to tell you where you can get a date — but only if you actually listen and learn during the first bit. Got it?" Ron was torn between pain from his ear, embarrassment from being called out in public like that, and excitement at the prospect of finally getting a date. Then he came back around to embarrassment again because if he did get a date, it looked like it would only be because of his little sister.

This left Neville and Hermione alone at the table. At Jasmine's outburst, Hermione had jerked as if she had been slapped, and now she looked about ready to get up and leave. Neville put his hand on his arm to stop her and said, "No, Hermione, don't walk away yet. We need to talk, and I haven't been able to get you alone recently."

"I'm sorry, Neville, but I wouldn't be very good company right now. I already wasn't feeling all that great, but now after what Jasmine just said... does she really think that of me? And why? What's the matter with her? I'm feeling kind of ill right now — I really should be going..."

"That's what I want to talk about, as a matter of fact. I think I have some idea of what's going on with her." Hermione looked hopeful at that, but Neville continued, "However, I'd like to talk about **you** first."

"Me, what about me?" asked Hermione with a puzzled look on her face.

"Well, can you answer a simple question for me?" Neville asked. "Here it is: what exactly have you been doing for the past few days since Krum asked you to the ball? You see, I know that you'd like to go to the ball with a certain someone, but can't. Once Krum asked you, though, it seemed like you forgot entirely about that first preference of yours — it was all about Krum. I can understand being excited about being asked to go, especially by an international star like him, but I'm not sure I understand forgetting about everyone and everything else. You haven't exactly been acting like you are only going to the ball with Krum as friends — not even when only around the three of us."

Hermione turned pale as realization dawned. "Oh, no! I got so excited about someone asking me out that I forgot about everything else!"

Neville tried to smile in a reassuring manner. "I doubt that you're the first to do that. Now, let's talk about Jasmine. I've been thinking — she didn't have the greatest home life, did she? I noticed we skipped over the details about her home when writing out problems in her life, but I remember some odd comments she's made over the years. I've also noticed that her muggle clothing has always looked rather bad," Neville continued. "I'm guessing she was never given much by her relatives?"

"That's one way to put it," Hermione answered, trying to figure out where he was going with this.

"And having someone who really cares about her is kind of new for her, isn't it?"

"Again, that's putting it mildly," Hermione said, the wheels still turning in her head.

"So if she's never had much of anything that was important to her, and now she's got this one person in her life who suddenly means everything... don't you think she might be afraid of losing that?" Neville asked gently.

Hermione looked up in surprise. "She's jealous? But Viktor and I aren't... I mean, I never said..." Suddenly she remembered just what she _had_ said, and done, ever since Viktor had asked her to the ball, and how that must have looked to Jasmine. "But... but why didn't she talk to me about it? I would have told her that Viktor and I are just friends — not even that, really, because I barely know him!" she added, bewildered.

"She said she was going to the other night after dancing," Neville replied. "Did something happen?"

Hermione paused, trying to remember. "I was already in bed by the time she got to the dorm — maybe she thought I was asleep. And the next morning... oh, Merlin, that was when Lavender and Parvati were gushing about Viktor, and Jasmine just blew up." Abruptly she stopped and frowned at Neville. "Wait, she already talked to you about this? When she hadn't even talked to _me_ yet?"

Neville shrugged. "I could see something was bothering her, so I asked her about it. She seemed to have a hard time even making sense of what she was feeling. I guess if you've never had much to lose, you might not recognize jealousy if it hit you, or be very good at dealing with it when it did." He paused, then added pointedly, "It did seem to help her to have someone to talk to."

Hermione groaned at his unspoken criticism and put her face in her hands. "You're right, I'm sorry. Oh, Neville, what have I done?"

"That doesn't matter so much as what you're _going_ to do," he said firmly. Inside, Neville was doing a happy dance that after several days of thinking about little else, he had gotten close enough to the truth that Hermione could agree with him. Now he just needed to get her to act on those insights.

"What?" Hermione asked, suddenly looking up.

"I'm pretty sure that she's gone to your training room," Neville explained. "What you need to do is to go there, spend time with her, and talk this out. You've both made mistakes — _understandable_ mistakes. You can get past them, but first you need to start talking. You need to remember what you feel for each other and what you still have with each other. Yes, you still have it — you just need to remind each other of that."

Tears shone in Hermione's eyes as she listened to him. "When did you get to be so wise, Neville?"

He just grinned. "Hey, I can't keep spending so much time with such smart witches and remain a dunderhead forever, can I?"

"Thanks, Neville. I'll probably be gone for a while," Hermione said as she rose from the table.

"Good," he replied. "I'd be worried if you weren't. Be sure to give her a smack on the back of the head for me, yeah?" Hermione probably didn't hear the last bit, as she was already moving at high speed for the common room door.

Once she was gone, Neville sagged in relief. He knew he'd sounded far more confident than he really felt. _Merlin_ , he thought, _I hope I was right about all of that..._

* * *

Although she wanted to run all the way to their training room, Hermione quickly realized that she needed a bit of time to organize her thoughts and think of what she was going to say, then what Jasmine would likely say, and how she would respond. She mentally reviewed what she could remember of how she behaved over the past few days, especially when Krum was around or was mentioned.

She grimaced at this, realizing for the first time just how much of a simpering fangirl she must have looked like. _I acted almost as bad as I did with Lockhart! Even worse, I don't even_ _ **like**_ _Quidditch unless Jasmine is playing!_ As she thought of it, she started to realize that this might be a disturbing pattern in her life. _When I first met Jasmine on the train, I immediately tried to impress her. When we were taught by Lockhart, I practically fawned over him all year. Then, as soon as Krum asked me out... yikes!_

Fortunately, she knew that she wasn't actually a fangirl. She wasn't even attracted to Krum, really. She did respect his skills, though, and she had indeed insisted that she'd only go with him if they were going as friends. What easily looked like fangirl behavior on the outside was simply her reveling in the fact that _someone_ thought highly enough of her to ask her out to a ball.

_Krum asking me to the dance wasn't the same as Jasmine asking me out,_ she mused. _Krum doesn't know me like Jasmine does, he's hardly ever spoken to me. All he knows about me is what I look like and that I spend a lot of time in the library... and he still asked me to the Yule Ball. Me! And it's Viktor Krum, an international Quidditch star who could probably go out with just about anyone he wanted._

It was hard _not_ to swoon a little at that.

_But apparently I swooned a little too much, and Jasmine noticed,_ Hermione lamented. _Noticed and was hurt by it. So she lashed out, and I took it personally, refusing to speak to her after that._

She sighed. _Like Neville said, we both made mistakes, but if I'm going to be brutally honest I have to admit that the primary fault lies with me. It was an accident, but the responsibility is mine. So the responsibility for apologizing first is mine, too._

_I just need Jasmine to sit still and calm down long enough for me to explain,_ she thought. _I can make this right. I just need to find the right combination of words that will soothe and heal._

Hermione was good with words. She could do this.

Finding herself standing in front of the training room door, Hermione took a couple of deep breaths to steady herself while she reviewed the best phrasings she'd been able to think of. Moving quickly in order to not lose courage, she opened the door, slammed it shut, tossed up her privacy and silencing spells, then turned to face her objective.

Jasmine Potter stood there looking quite pitiful. Her hair was a mess — well, more of a mess than usual — and her eyes were puffy from crying. She was breathing heavily and had a look of desperation on her tear-streaked face.

Hermione just stared at her, all thoughts of soothing words and clever phrasing gone. Jasmine stared back, all her rage having left her. As they looked at each other — for the first time in days, really _looked_ at each other — both realized that words weren't needed at all.

Neither was conscious of having moved, but when they met in the middle of the room, they reminded each other of what they still had together by the simplest means possible. Their kiss lasted much, much longer than any previously had, and this time, the two glowing balls of light that started in each of their chests grew larger, with distinct tendrils becoming easily visible. This time, because the girls' bodies were pressed so tightly together, the blue and green tendrils didn't have far to stretch and so managed to make contact, beginning to intertwine just before the witches pulled back and the glow disappeared.

They eventually did get around to talking out their problems. Hermione apologized for acting like a besotted groupie, explaining that regardless of what it had looked like, she was indeed only going with Viktor as friends. As it turned out, that's what he'd wanted, too.

Jasmine apologized for her outbursts and bad behavior. They talked about why she had acted that way, and while Hermione understood, she also said that they would need to work on it together because they couldn't be in a long-term relationship if she had to worry about Jasmine's fear and jealousy getting out of control all the time.

Jasmine didn't hear much else after that because she was nearly giddy that Hermione was thinking about having "a long-term relationship" with her.

However, it took a while before they got to the part of the conversation that used words — first, the two witches held a much more basic conversation. It still involved lips and tongues, but it was a more primal way of expressing emotions. It was also the conversation that, in their minds, was the most important.


	9. Yule Preparations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Recommendation: This chapter's recommended fic is "After Sunrise" by Hlpur. Sadly never finished, this was one of the first H/Hr fics I ever read and favorited. Harry and Hermione return from Australia with a couple of surprises which some of their friends find to be wonderful; others, not so much. Not deep, but entertaining. I will forever lament the fact that it was apparently abandoned.

**Sunday, December 20, 1994, Morning.**

It was a relieved Minerva McGonagall who welcomed Jasmine and Hermione into her office that morning. The tension between the two of them earlier in the week had been palpable, and for a while she had feared the worst; but now it seemed that whatever was wrong had been worked out. _Even so_ , she thought to herself, _it would be a good idea to check and make sure that similar problems don't happen again in the future._

Guiding them away from her desk and towards a set of chairs arranged around a small table, she said, "Why don't we sit over here. This is where I entertain more personal visitors. Although I don't expect us to avoid academic topics and school, I see that our conversations will be more personal than professional. It could be a problem if anyone else comes by and sees because they'll wonder why I'm treating you this way, but the chances of that are small. Most know better than to come here on a Sunday — in fact, that's why I asked you to start coming on this day of the week."

The chairs here, plush and decorated with Gryffindor colors, were far more comfortable than the straight-backed wooden chairs set out for visitors at her desk, and the two younger witches were glad for the accommodation. On the table sat a tea service and a delicate lace covering protecting the table top.

After tea was served, Minerva began with an inquiry about the recent state of their relationship. "I have to ask you about how things are between the two of you on a personal level. I could see that you were at odds with each other earlier this week, despite your denials, but now it looks like matters have improved?"

Both girls looked a bit ashamed at being reminded of their fight — they had only just made up the night before, so the memories of anger and pain were still fresh. Hermione spoke up first. "It was mostly just misunderstandings. We both made mistakes, but it was my fault more than hers. I was invited to the ball by Viktor Krum early in the week, and I was so flattered that I just... lost my head a bit, I guess. Unfortunately, it gave the impression that I fancied Viktor, which understandably made Jasmine upset."

"Hermione has pointed out to me that I need to find better ways to deal with feelings like jealousy," Jasmine continued. "I can't keep it all bottled up then let it explode when the pressure gets to be too much. That was my mistake. Luckily for me, Hermione was willing to look past that and come to me when I was angry so we could start working it out."

"I'm glad to hear that," Minerva said. "It's not just important for the two of you to resolve your differences after an argument (and you will have arguments — all couples do), but also to identify the causes and think of ways to avoid having the same sort of argument again later. Learn from your mistakes and you'll become a far stronger couple in the long run. The close friendship that already exists between the two of you should make that easier."

The two witches glowed at this praise from their professor. Jasmine in particular was unaccustomed to being complemented by someone in authority for doing well.

"Now, speaking of your relationship," Minerva continued, "have either of you had time to start reading the book I gave you? I'm interested in whether you have any comments to share, questions about the content, or even personal insights that the book has generated."

Hermione looked slightly embarrassed at this point and answered after a moment, "I'm sorry, but no. I've skimmed through some of it, but I thought that it might make more sense for me to first read the standard, traditional wizarding positions on matters like love and marriage, then read your book so I can at the same time learn how they differ. Finding the material in the library has been tough, but I've already read through the books on marriage that I found most interesting."

McGonagall pursed her lips and looked to be deep in thought for a long moment before saying, "To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure which approach would be best. Normally I'd recommend reading the Pureheart book first because having her perspective already in mind would make the narrow-mindedness and bigotry of the traditional wizarding positions much easier to recognize. But I'm not sure that that would be the case with you, Miss Granger — you seem quite adept at recognizing some of the flaws in magical society."

Hermione smiled and was quite pleased again at the praise.

"However," Minerva continued, "At least some of that — and possibly most — is due to the fact that you're an outsider. You don't share all the assumptions and prejudices which people raised in magical society take for granted. But what about your own assumptions and prejudices which you bring with you from your muggle upbringing?"

Hermione frowned, suddenly not sure that she was being praised anymore and uncertain how she should answer the question. "I'm sorry?"

"Well, Miss Granger," Minerva said as she sipped her tea, "Every society has its faults, and every person has assumptions and prejudices which they learn from their family, their community, and society as a whole. Most people typically aren't even aware that they have them — they're simply taken for granted. This is true for both magicals and muggles. It's true about me, and it's true about you."

Comprehension dawned on Hermione's face. She had been so busy picking apart the prejudices she found surrounding her in magical society that she'd never stopped to think about what sorts of prejudices she might be carrying herself.

"If I'm not mistaken, there is still prejudice against same-sex relationships among muggles, correct?" Minerva asked. When both young witches nodded in agreement, she continued, "This means that you two carry at least some prejudicial assumptions about them, despite your recent revelations about yourselves. Then there are any number of assumptions you may carry regarding love in general, marriage, other types of relationships, and of course sex."

The young witches both squirmed at the mention of sex, not having expected to ever broach that topic with the much older woman. Minerva decided to ignore their reactions — for now. She knew that they would have to get over their attitudes towards sex and sexuality, especially with that book now in their hands.

"If you start your research with books written from a traditional perspective, you'll catch many prejudices because you don't share them, but you may miss others because they happen to be shared with the muggles and you unconsciously hold them as well. Pureheart skewers most of the common prejudices among magicals, and I expect she also challenges a great many currently held by muggles, too. If you read her book _first_ you may be able to approach the others with a more critical eye."

The room grew silent as everyone took the time to consider Minerva's words. These were new ideas to the fourth-year Gryffindor girls, even Hermione, and it took a bit for them to process everything.

"I'm not saying that starting in the library is necessarily a bad idea," Minerva finally stated. "I'm just saying that it isn't necessarily the best, either. You'll need to think about which is best for you."

Switching topics, the professor asked, "Now, what are you two planning for the Yule Ball?"

Jasmine spoke up this time, explaining how the students had arranged matters. "Well, I'm still going with Neville, and Hermione is going with Viktor Krum. We intend to try to spend a little time with each other alone that night, but we know we won't get much, if any. Ginny has been joining Neville, Hermione, and me for dancing practice nearly every night. Today Hermione and I intend to get dresses in Hogsmeade..."

"Wait," interrupted Minerva, "why don't you have dresses? They were on the list of items for this year."

"I did get one," answered Jasmine, "but Hermione didn't because she didn't expect to want to go to whatever was happening. Well, neither did I, but Mrs. Weasley forced me to get it after the Quidditch World Cup. Anyway, Hermione is going to get a dress, and I thought I'd get something new if we can find one that compliments hers. We can't go together, but we can dress as if we were, and it shouldn't arouse much suspicion since everyone knows we're close friends."

Minerva smiled at their plan. "That sounds quite nice. I'm glad to hear that you're trying to do something to give yourselves the feeling of going together, even if you can't do so officially. But if you intend to do much dress shopping in Hogsmeade, you should probably get going now — you'll need as much time as you can get. Let me offer a tip, though. Most students probably go to Gladrags because it's the best known clothing shop, and it's right on High Street. A bit further down, however, is a side street off to the right, and it will take you to some different stores usually frequented by townsfolk. There you'll find Gossypamer & Organza's, a store that specializes in dresses, robes, and other upscale clothing for witches. They will be a little more expensive, but I think you'll like what you'll find. And they shouldn't be as busy, even today, so you might get some personal service."

The two young Gryffindors looked happy to learn about this, but before they could go to make use of this advice, their professor had something else to say. "I realize that this might seem to be coming a bit late, but I needed time to process it all and reflect on my past behavior." Looking from one to the other, she continued, regret clearly etched on her face. "When you first came to me, you came with a list of serious grievances about my past actions. At first I was defensive and denied that you had legitimate complaints. Then, after you forced me to confront the gravity of a couple of those incidents, I reluctantly conceded that I had been in the wrong in those cases and may have been wrong in others."

Jasmine's and Hermione's eyes had grown wide listening to this. They hadn't given a lot of thought to that first meeting because so much had been happening, but clearly the older woman had.

Minerva put down her teacup and folded her hands in her lap, looking uncomfortable saying all of this. "Last week, you provided a detailed list of questionable actions by Professor Dumbledore, many of which involved me as well. After spending the past couple of weeks thinking about it, I must to my great shame admit that I have indeed wronged you both, and you especially, Miss Potter. Although not every incident could have been handled differently, all could have at least been handled better, with greater care taken to minimize the harm to you."

Making an obvious point of looking them both in the eyes, she continued, "It's not easy for me to admit, but I am sorry for the extent to which I've failed you, both by my actions and my inaction. I promise you that I will try to do better by both of you, just as someone in my position should. However," she warned them, "I won't always be able to do as much as I'd like because of oaths to follow the headmaster's instructions."

Both young witches were greatly moved. "We understand, Professor," Hermione assured her quietly. Jasmine nodded and said formally, "We accept your apology." Then her face softened with a shy smile as she added, "Thank you."

* * *

**Sunday, December 20, 1994, Late Morning.**

Walking along the snow-lined path to Hogsmeade, Hermione's eyes widened briefly and she said, "Oh, Jasmine, before we go to that store, we need to go to the Owl Post Office so I can change money. I wrote to my parents and asked them to send me some cash so I could buy a dress."

With a knowing grin, Jasmine responded, "I'll bet that was fun. How much did you grovel in your letter, and how many times did your parents repeat 'I told you so'?"

"Mmmm, crow — tasty!" Hermione said sourly, smacking her lips. Then she sighed. "Still, it could have been worse. I think it helped that I used you for sympathy points."

"Me?"

"Sure. I didn't tell them that it was a ball or that I had a date — I didn't want to have to grovel about that, too. I simply told them that it was a formal affair, and I needed to go because of you, since you're a champion. I already told them how you were being forced to compete, of course, and I think I benefited from their sympathy for you."

"Oh?" Jasmine asked dryly. "How very Slytherin of you, Miss Granger."

"Now, now — you don't have to get nasty. So, Owl Post Office first?"

"No need," Jasmine responded. "I've still got plenty of galleons from when I visited Gringotts before the World Cup."

"Jasmine," Hermione said with a little heat in her voice, "I can pay for my own dress."

"I know, Hermione, but it's easier this way. You have to pay a fee to exchange money, right? Why do that when I already have galleons? We can go exchange your muggle money later if I don't have enough, but if I do, why not simply give me the equivalent in British pounds?"

"Oh, sure! That makes sense."

"And you'll find that my exchange fee is far more pleasant than the Post's."

"Oh?" asked Hermione suspiciously. "What are your fees, exactly?"

"Just one kiss per galleon," Jasmine answered impishly.

"I don't know," Hermione hedged, though with a gleam in her eye. "Sounds a bit steep to me..."

"Well, be careful, or I'll have to tack on a few service charges, too," Jasmine replied with a grin.

"And what might these service charges be?" Hermione asked archly. When she didn't hear a response, she looked over at her girlfriend to see her wiggling her fingers in a tickling motion. "Oh, no!" Hermione said anxiously as she backed away down the path. "No... don't you dare... Jasmine Dorea Potter, don't you **dare** try to tickle... eeeek!" As Jasmine launched herself forward, Hermione turned and ran towards Hogsmeade, yelling and laughing the whole way. They didn't stop until they reached the side street described to them by Professor McGonagall, where they leaned up against a wall to catch their breaths.

"So," Jasmine asked, still panting, "I assume I don't need to impose any service charges?"

"No," Hermione answered with a wide but tired smile, "I'll happily pay the exchange fee, if that's okay with you."

* * *

Professor McGonagall's recommendation of Gossypamer & Organza's was spot-on. It was by far much nicer than Gladrags, with a better selection of upscale women's clothing — even if it wasn't the sort that most students would have occasion to wear often. While Hermione was browsing some dresses, however, Jasmine discovered an unexpected surprise: wizarding lingerie.

Since Hermione was otherwise occupied, Jasmine got a crash course in magical undergarments from a helpful wardrobe witch, and she discovered that there were some big differences from the muggle versions. For one thing, magical undergarments didn't rely on straps and other physical elements to the same degree as their muggle counterparts. This meant that the magical versions could be smaller and lighter, and thus a lot more comfortable — and that was before temperature and sizing charms were added. They could also be lacier and more revealing without sacrificing comfort, support, or anything else a witch might desire.

That was all it took for Jasmine to fall in love with magical clothing.

"Hermione, get over here!" she called excitedly.

"Can it wait? I was about to try this on."

Jasmine rushed over and grabbed Hermione by the shoulders. "Two words," she said as she stared into her girlfriend's face. "Magic. Bras."

Hermione's eyes went wide at the implications, and she put up no further resistance as the green-eyed witch seized her arm and dragged her over to the lingerie display. Between the two of them, Gossypamer & Organza's did enough business on girls' undergarments alone to close for the day, but the Gryffindor teens weren't done — they still had to find a dress or dresses.

Unfortunately, that part of their plan didn't go as well. They were unable to find two dresses that would have complemented each other in the way that the girls had been hoping for. They could have gotten matching dresses, but even they had enough social sense to recognize how bad of an idea that was. This left them looking for a dress which looked good on Hermione and didn't clash (too badly at least) with what Jasmine already had.

In the end, Hermione decided on a beautiful periwinkle blue dress that had a satin bodice, cascading ruffles of increasingly dark chiffon for the skirt that went all the way to her ankles, light butterfly sleeves, and a contrasting tie at the waist. They were originally going to go with a simpler red dress that came to mid-calf, but she fell in love with the more elaborate blue one and purchased it on the spot.

They were confident that it would mesh well enough with Jasmine's, an elegant, floor-length dress with a medium blue V-neck halter, midnight blue bodice, and a skirt with alternating waves of medium and light blue ruffled satin.

Since they could only find one dress, they decided to splurge a little more and purchase some other clothing. It was more upscale and expensive than what they were used to, either in muggle or in magical shops, but they were having such a good time that they couldn't resist the temptation. Between the two of them, they added several blouses, skirts, robes, and shoes to the pile of undergarments already waiting for them at the till.

* * *

Walking back to High Street to hopefully meet up with friends for a late snack at the Three Broomsticks, the pair passed by a flower store they hadn't noticed before, Magical Blooms. Pulling on Hermione's hand, Jasmine led them both inside. "What do we need in here, Jas?" she asked.

"Well," Jasmine answered, "if we can't have dresses that coordinate well, perhaps we can find matching flowers to go on the dresses?"

"Jasmine! That's a fantastic idea!"

Browsing around the flower shop, the two Gryffindors discovered some amazing oriental lilies. Before the approached, the lilies had the standard pinkish hues, but when the girls got up next to them, they started shifting colors to match what the girls were wearing.

"Excuse me," Hermione called out to the man behind the counter. "Can you tell us about these lilies?"

"Greetings!" the man said as he came up to the girls. "My name is Rosenzweig, owner of Magical Blooms. We just received our first-ever shipment of these magical lilies. They were first bred by a couple living in California, and apparently it was an accident. The wizard was the clumsy sort and spilled an unidentified potion into his wife's flowerbed, thus producing what you see here. The magical lily looks like a standard oriental lily at first, but starts shifting to match the colors you are wearing."

"That's amazing," enthused Jasmine. "How long does the effect last?"

"Oh, these lilies will last for another week yet at least. The potion they were treated with evidently increases their longevity in addition to giving them the color-changing property."

"Jasmine, we can use these to create wrist corsages," said Hermione. "They'll be similar, but not exactly the same, and they'll go with both of our dresses perfectly!"

"What's a wrist corsage?" asked Mr. Rosenzweig.

"In the muggle world," explained Hermione, "it's common for women to wear small flower designs with their fancy dresses. A standard corsage is pinned to the dress; a wrist corsage fits around the wrist like a bracelet. They are usually made up of multiple flowers and some ribbon. I was thinking of putting one of these magical lilies in the center and surrounding it with some small white rose buds."

"That sounds marvelous!' said Mr. Rosenzweig. "I've never heard of such a thing myself, but I'd love to help you. If you'll allow me to design these for you, I'll throw in the white roses for free. Can you come by to pick them up later?"

"Yes, certainly," said Jasmine. "Thank you so much!"

"You're quite welcome, young ladies," Rosenzweig said as he ushered them out of his store. "Just tell everyone where you got them. They might be good for business!"

* * *

Unable to find their friends, Jasmine and Hermione decided to simply sit together in the Three Broomsticks with a couple of warm butterbeers. Slowly, Jasmine tried to bring up a subject she had long wondered about, but hadn't ever been able to figure out how to ask about. Earlier, though, Hermione had given her an opening. A bit of time had passed, but this was the best chance she'd seen in ages, and she couldn't waste it.

"Ummm... Hermione? Can I ask you about something?"

"Sure, Jas," she answered, wondering about the auburn-haired witch's abrupt change in demeanor.

"Earlier, you mentioned that your parents sent you the money you asked for, and that they didn't give you a hard time about it, right?"

"Yes...?"

"Well, that reminded me of something that's had me curious but I haven't known how to ask about. You never say much of anything about your family — none of your family, parents or anyone else. I've worried that maybe you've had problems at home, like I do, but you don't have any of the issues that I do, and on the few occasions you do mention your parents, they seem OK. Is there anything you'd like to talk about? I don't mean to pry, but I've been a little concerned."

Hermione sagged deeper and deeper into her seat as Jasmine spoke. This was not something she been looking forward to talking about. _And on a day that had been going so well, too! Oh, well, I guess it had to happen some time. Might as well get it over with..._

"No, Jasmine, I don't have problems at home — not like you do, certainly. My parents are nice. They're great people — they're successful, ambitious, own their own business, involved in the community, go to church..." Hermione sighed deeply before continuing, "But all of that makes them busy. Too busy for me, most of the time."

Jasmine reached under the table, where no one would see, to take Hermione's hand as it was resting on her knee.

"When I was fairly young, I must have started to resent how much time they were spending away from me and tried to find a way to get their attention. There were always lots of books around the house, and my parents like to read, so I think I chose to focus on that — especially non-fiction books, because they would have seemed the most 'adult' of anything I could find."

Taking a drink of warm butterbeer, Hermione paused for a few moments before resuming. "That backfired, I guess. They saw me reading mature, adult books. I have an fantastic memory, so I remembered what I read and thus gave the impression of being smart. I was an only child, so I acted like the two main people in my life: my parents. In the end, I think all of that caused my parents to regard me as a small adult rather than a child, and so they began giving me more of the freedoms and privileges of an adult rather than the time and guidance needed by a child.

"At first, I was thrilled. What kid doesn't want to have some of the respect and freedom that adults take for granted? I could come and go to the library almost whenever I wanted, for example. Since I truly loved to learn and read, that was fantastic. But the downside of this new arrangement soon became clear. I no longer had a babysitter waiting at home for me, and my parents felt free to stay away from home even longer. We no longer took trips that kids would enjoy, like to the zoo. In the end, my attempts to get more attention from my parents actually cost me much of what little I'd been getting.

"Even worse, encouraging me to act more like an adult only made it harder for me to learn how to be with kids my own age, and you know how that's turned out. It's only been recently that I've been able to look back on my behavior and recognize the mistakes I made. I wasn't an adult and didn't handle myself well. I've had the worst of both worlds: in some ways I'm more mature than my peers and I can't relate to them; in other ways I'm still behind them, and we only end up annoying each other."

Hermione wiped a couple of stray tears from her eyes before taking another sip of butterbeer. "Don't get me wrong, my parents are nice people. Everyone I've met seems to think so, at any rate. They certainly aren't hypocrites who put on a good face for the outside world, but who are mean and nasty in private — at home, they are just as nice and polite as when in public. They just... they don't understand me. Maybe they don't understand kids, and any child of theirs would have been in the same position. Sometimes, though... sometimes I wonder how much of it is me."

Hermione was having more trouble holding back her tears, now, but she pushed on anyway. "Whatever the reasons, we've been distant for years, and that distance has only been growing since I learned I was a witch. That's partly my fault because I haven't tried to bridge the gap. Nothing I did worked before I discovered magic, and now magic has given me a refuge where I can hide from that particular problem. I love my parents, I really do, but... well, I don't know if that's enough. I don't know if there's enough of a relationship left to salvage. Or if there is, how we'd go about doing it."

Jasmine suddenly wished she had asked this in a more private setting. If there weren't so many people around, she'd wrap the brunette witch in a hug and provide whatever comfort she could. Here in public, though, holding her hand under the table was the best she could do — and it wasn't nearly enough to help the now-sobbing girl.

It might not be enough for now, but Jasmine would plan. Oh, yes, she would plan. _I'll say this much for the Durselys,_ Jasmine mused. _For all that their treatment of me was awful, there were never any mixed messages. The Dursleys hate me, I hate the Dursleys. Simple._

Hermione's situation was far more confusing. _If I had my parents, I'd be happy to take them any way I could get them — she shouldn't feel like she has to give up on hers because they are having trouble understanding her. They obviously love and support her, and that should be enough to build on. Now, I need to figure out how to get the reconciliation process started..._

* * *

**Sunday, December 20, 1994, Evening.**

Dancing lessons went far better that Sunday evening than they had during the previous evenings. Everyone was in a good mood, especially Ginny. True to his word, Neville had dropped a few hints with Dean Thomas. It had taken a bit, but the other boy had finally figured out that Ginny Weasley was available and might be interested, so he had taken her shopping in Hogsmeade earlier that day and asked her to the Yule Ball while they were eating lunch in the Three Broomsticks. Ginny then immediately went to Gladrags, where she was able to find an inexpensive but nice dress.

With everyone in such a good mood, they felt lighter on their feet and found it easier to dance smoothly. Neville's culture and tradition lesson covered honor duels, a somewhat unpleasant subject but one which could have significant implications for one's family. Jasmine remembered the duel which Draco Malfoy had challenged her to back in first year — a duel which he had skipped out on. She was surprised to learn that if the wording had made it an official duel, things could have gone badly for the Malfoy heir.

As they were leaving, Neville moved next to Jasmine and said quietly, "I'm so glad that you two made up and aren't fighting any more. It was hard on the rest of us because we didn't know what to do. Especially me, since I knew that the fight was more serious than others realized."

"We're sorry, Neville. We both made mistakes, but we've promised each other to find ways to not make those same mistakes again."

"Yeah, I'm sure you'll find all new ones, eh?"

"Prat," Jasmine said as she punched him lightly in the shoulder.

"So, do you plan on getting her an extra make-up gift for Christmas, or is your main gift good enough to cover it all?"

"Uh... gift?"

"Yeah, Jasmine, gift. You know, Christmas?"

"Christmas?" she said in a small voice.

"Christmas. Yule. Same day as the ball we're practicing for?"

"Yule? Gift?"

Neville shook his head. "Oh, Jasmine. When I said you'd find all new mistakes to make, I didn't mean you should start _right now._ "

"Urk!" Jasmine's brain had by this point simply hung out a "Vacancy" sign and pretended not to be home anymore. She was in **soooo** much trouble...

* * *

**A/N** : That last exchange was inspired by a similar exchange in another fanfic. Can anyone guess which one? Hint: the exchange is between Hermione and her mother.


	10. Jasmine's Little Helper

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I wanted to point out something which I perhaps should have mentioned before, though many of you should be aware of it anyway because it is technically true of all or almost all fiction. None of the characters here are omniscient. This means that none of their perspectives qualify as the "whole truth." Some will come closer, of course, but even the best are still limited. This means that Jasmine's complaints about Dumbledore are just her perspective — there's a lot she doesn't know. Same is true about Hermione's opinion of her parents — she was a little kid when everything happened, so as perceptive as she is, she didn't know everything about their motives or behavior. You can generally assume that what you're seeing now may not be the final word on something.
> 
> Recommendation: This chapter's recommended fic is "Of Loneliness and Chocolate Frogs" by 16pennies. Short, beautifully written "missing" scene from the beginning of second year, showing how important Ron and Harry are to Hermione.

**Monday, December 21, 1994, Morning.**

For most Hogwarts students, the first day of hols without classes is a time for celebration, or at least quiet relaxation. It's a time to enjoy life. For Jasmine Potter, it was a time to appreciate living because she wasn't sure how much of it she had left. She had forgotten to get a gift for Hermione Granger, her best friend and now also her girlfriend. To be fair, in all the terror surrounding the Triwizard Tournament, she'd forgotten to get any gifts. For anyone.

But it was her failure to get a gift for Hermione that was haunting her.

She wasn't afraid that Hermione would hex or curse her. No, far worse would be the look of profound disappointment she was sure she'd see on Hermione's face. And there was no way she wasn't going to take it personally, or as a statement about the importance of their relationship. After that emotional conversation about her parents, she realized that since Hermione had been denied caring attention for so long, it had become something she craved (though often with negative consequences, such as her habit of trying to show off to teachers by answering every question).

Right now, Jasmine thought that disappointing Hermione would be about the worst thing in the world. Not that the feeling was all that new, of course. _It was originally for her sake, after all, that I started studying harder and trying to do better in classes. I didn't want her to be disappointed in my grades. The Dursleys never cared, so I'd never had that before._ Ever since their first kiss, though, the feeling had been growing stronger, and this need to make her happy and show her the caring she desired was a lot more powerful than Jasmine ever would have imagined.

So that was that — she needed a gift. _What kind of gift do I need, though? I need a gift good enough for my best friend — a best friend who has helped me survive this tournament. Oh, it also needs to be awesome enough for my girlfriend — my first girlfriend on our very first Christmas together. And... it also needs to be amazing enough for a girlfriend that I just had a huge fight with but then made up with, like Neville said._

The more she thought about how spectacular the gift needed to be, the more Jasmine quailed. _I'm so buggered!_

It was still ridiculously early, but she realized there'd be no going back to sleep at this point. Trying to get dressed as quietly as possible, she realized that the first part of her solution needed to be to get away from Hermione. There was no way she'd be able to get Hermione an amazing gift while the girl was around.

Making her way down to the common room, she didn't notice the house elf cleaning up. Jasmine walked to the large fireplace and incanted " _ **Incendio!**_ " to start a fire and get the common room a bit warmer. She then proceeded to pace back and forth, muttering to herself as she quickly considered then dismissed one plan after another, each more ambitious and convoluted than the next. After considering a plan that required two hippogriffs, a box of nifflers, and a trained kneazle, then rejecting it because there was no way she'd be able to train a kneazle in time, and Crookshanks would never keep the secret, she threw up her hands and half-shouted, "Ugh! What am I going to do now?"

"Missy Jazzy? Is you being alright?"

"What?" Jasmine jumped at the voice, not having seen the house elf come up behind her. A house elf wearing an awful lot hats. Looking more closely, she realized she recognized this elf. "Dobby? Dobby! What are you doing here? I thought you were out and employed somewhere."

"Oh, Missy Jazzy, Dobby is employed! Dobby is employed by Hoggywarts! Dobby be cleaning common room, and finding many wonderful hats!"

Taking a closer look, Jasmine realized that the hats were familiar, too. "Are those Hermione's hats?"

"Yes, Missy Jazzy. Other elves refuse to clean here, say they not want to be tricked by She-Who-Knits, so Dobby be doing it all hisself!" The manic little elf looked to be over the moon with joy at having so much work to do alone.

"Well... great? Glad to hear it." _Better not tell Hermione where all of her hats are going..._ "When did you come to Hogwarts, anyway?"

"Dobby comes to Hoggywarts with Winky at end of November. Dobby starts working right away, but Winky be drinking too much butterbeer. Winky be sad that old master dismissed her, making her a disgraced elf."

Jasmine scowled at that. "Winky? You mean Barty Crouch's old elf? I don't think she's disgraced — Crouch is a nasty old man who didn't deserve her loyalty. I think she's a good elf. If there is anything I can do to help her, you let me know."

Dobby suddenly started wailing and grabbed hold of Jasmine's leg. "Oh, Dobby knew that the Great Mistress Jasmine Potter Ma'am was a great witch, but Dobby didn't know that the Great Mistress Jasmine Potter cared about _all_ house elves! Mistress Jasmine Potter is truly the greatest of all witches!"

The sobbing went on for nearly a minute before she had the heart to detach him from her leg. "Er, yeah. Great. Thanks, Dobby. I don't want to keep you from your job — sorry for interrupting. I've got a huge problem that I need to solve."

"The Great Mistress Jasmine Potter Ma'am has a prob—"

"Dobby!" Jasmine interrupted sharply. "What did I tell you about using so many names and titles with me?"

Looking sheepish, the house elf said, "Uh... not to?"

Hands on her hips and a stern look on her face, Jasmine continued, "Right. What are you allowed to use instead?"

"Missy Jazzy?"

Rolling her eyes because that really hadn't been her first choice, though she knew it was the best she'd be able to get out of her diminutive, one-time stalker, she answered, "Right. So continue..."

Still looking sheepish and obviously trying to rein in his enthusiasm, Dobby started again, "Missy Jazzy has a problem? Maybe Dobby can help? What can Dobby do?"

At first she was going to say no and dismiss the elf, but then Jasmine cocked her head in thought. She remembered how powerful house elves could be, and how determined Dobby in particular could be when in pursuit of a goal — especially a goal that involved his Missy Jazzy. _Maybe I shouldn't be so quick to dismiss his offer,_ she considered. _What have I got to lose?_

Looking down at the elf now quivering in anticipation, she told him, "OK, Dobby, here's the deal. First, this is all secret. No one can know anything I'm about to tell you. You are to say **nothing** about any of it without my prior say-so, OK?"

Dobby's eyes went wide. "Yes, Dobby keep Missy Jazzy's secrets!" He then snapped his fingers, and Jasmine felt a wave of magical energy wash over her.

"What in the name of Merlin was that?"

"Dobby keeps his mistress's secrets! Dobby put house elf privacy spell around us. Now no one learn Missy Jazzy's secrets!"

"Oh, well, good. Yes, good job." Jasmine was also reminded of how far Dobby would go in order to creatively interpret his orders or goals and was suddenly not so sure that she had nothing to lose by trying this. Not that she had many other options by this point. "Well, first, Hermione and I are a couple. As in, a dating couple."

Dobby's impossibly large eyes got even larger at hearing that. "Yes, Dobby, I know how wizards and witches feel about it when two witches or two wizards become a couple. That's why I need it to stay a secret." Dobby nodded his head vigorously in understanding.

"Second, I forgot to get Hermione a present for Christmas. So I desperately need a gift — but it needs to be a spectacular one. It needs to be a gift for a best friend who has helped me so much, for a new girlfriend on our first Christmas together, and more. It needs to be something she'll like, something she can use, something that will show her how much she means to me..." Jasmine collapsed into a sitting position on the floor in front of Dobby. "I am in so much trouble, Dobby. I don't know what to do. I have no idea what sort of gift would even come close to doing all of that, much less where and how to get it!"

Clasping his hands together, Dobby started thinking hard about what could be done. Then Jasmine noticed that his eyes started darting back and forth. _Shifty eyes aren't a good sign on anyone, but on a manic house elf...?_

"What is it, Dobby?" she asked. "What did you think of? What aren't you telling me?"

Still looking awfully shifty and suspicious, Dobby finally answered, "Dobby might be knowing of gifts to be had and Dobby be knowing of way to get them, but Dobby not be sure... Dobby not be sure if Missy Jazzy be _ready_ for that."

Getting up on her knees, she leaned forward, grabbed the house elf's head in both hands, and stared into his huge eyes. "Look at me, Dobby. I'm a desperate witch here. There's little that I won't do in order to get a good gift for my Hermione for Christmas. What do I need to do? What do you need? Do you want more socks? You'll get them. Do you want another house elf to have an accident so you get more work? Consider it done. Anything. Name it."

Jasmine had never seen Dobby looking so happy before as he danced around her — and considering how effusive he was when he was happy, that was saying something. "Yes! Dobby can do!" Standing in front of her again, Dobby said, "Dobby be thinking that Missy Jazzy already have gifts. Does Missy Jazzy know about Potter vaults?"

Jasmine blinked a couple of times at this apparent non sequitur. "Uh... yeah, sort of. I recently learned that there might be more vaults waiting for me than just the Trust Vault that I visit. But I don't know for sure if any exist and when I might be allowed to access them if they do."

Dobby started bouncing on his feet now. "Yes, there be more Potter vaults. Potter family be having more than gold, though. Potters be old family with lots of mistresses, and mistresses collect jewelry. Dobby be thinking that Potters keep jewelry in vaults, maybe?"

Jasmine sat back on her haunches, her mind buzzing with the possibilities. Neither she nor Hermione were big into jewelry, but they didn't hate jewelry, either. The more she considered it, the more she realized that jewelry might be just about the best possible gift because it would likely fit all of her requirements. It would certainly be better than a simple book... though, come to think of it, a vault might contain an old book that would be perfect, too. _Now I need to get into the vaults, or at least have Dobby get in..._

Focusing again on the house elf in front of her, she said, "You're a life saver, Dobby. Can you take me to a vault? Can you go into any vaults for me? What do we do?" Suddenly, the elf started looking shifty again. Leaning back, she continued, "What is it that you aren't telling me? What's the problem?"

Looking for all the world like he expected to get beaten, Dobby slowly started to explain, "Dobby cannot be entering Potter vaults. Only Potter elves can be entering Potter vaults. Dobby... not quite Potter elf."

Jasmine reflected for a moment and decided that it was a good idea that the vaults didn't let just any old elf enter them. She then narrowed her eyes as she considered the last part, "What do you mean, 'not quite' a Potter elf? I thought you were a free elf, employed by Hoggywar... er... Hogwarts."

Starting to sob, Dobby continued, "To be real Potter elf, Dobby must be binding hisself to a Potter, and then a Potter must be accepting the bond, linking Potter magic to Dobby's magic. When Missy Jazzy be freeing Dobby, Dobby become linked to Missy Jazzy — but Missy Jazzy not be accepting bond. So Dobby kept alive by the link, but Dobby not being allowed to be real Potter elf. So Dobby be staying weak and treated like disgraced elf."

Jasmine's head swam with all the information she'd just heard. She needed to be clear on this. "OK, Dobby, first things first: what do you mean that this link kept you alive? Would you have died without it?"

Tugging on his large, bat-like ears in frustration, Dobby said, "House elves needing magic from wizards and witches to live. When elf kicked out of family, they be needing new family or they go insane and die. When magical family be binding house elf, magical family getting servant, and house elf getting magic. Bigger families and more powerful wizards or witches mean more magic for more elves." _So, what_ , Jasmine wondered to herself, _they're like magical parasites?_

"Oh, no!" Jasmine moaned when some of the implications of this dawned on her. "That means that by trying to free elves with clothes, Hermione is trying to kill house elves!"

Very sadly, Dobby nodded his head in agreement. "Missy Hermy not house elf master, so she can't be freeing any, but she still be scaring elves. That's why Dobby be working here alone."

Jasmine would have to think about this some more, but this new information sounded like it changed everything, and Hermione would have to radically alter her goals with SPEW. She wouldn't like that. "OK, moving on, you have a partial bond with me. How did it form? Do you want it completed? If so, how do we do it?"

Now Dobby started looking excited again. "Dobby create link to Missy Jazzy when Dobby save Missy Jazzy that last time. Dobby was free elf then, so link was created. If Missy Jazzy be wanting Dobby, Missy Jazzy need be saying 'I take Dobby as my elf.'"

"Well, sounds simple enough. Are you sure you want to be my house elf, Dobby? I don't have a house or a family..." Jasmine couldn't say any more because Dobby had flung himself into her, tightly hugging her chest, saying "Yes! Yes! Dobby dream of being house elf for Great Mistress Jasmine Potter Ma'am! That be bestest job in all world! And Dobby be good elf for Mistress Hermy-own-nee Grangey, too!"

Sighing, Jasmine decided not to call him out on his use of extended titles and names again. "OK, we'll do it. Will all these hats be a problem?"

Stepping back, Dobby responded, "If hats be left out as trash or laundry, house elves not seeing them as being given clothes. Magic be based on intent, and so house elf magic not react if intent of wizard or witch not to dismiss."

"Hmmm... that makes sense," Jasmine responded. "You'd never be able to do a family's laundry if you couldn't pick up clothing that was lying around." Frowning for a moment, Jasmine continued, "But why did you get dismissed by Malfoy? He didn't intend to even give you my sock, never mind dismiss you?"

Dobby looked sheepishly down at the floor and said, "Dobby be spending many years with bad old master. Dobby often given contradictory orders, just to get Dobby in trouble. Dobby learning to... be _creative_ in interpreting bad old master's intent. Dobby thinks Dobby's magic changed, be more... _flexible_."

Jasmine had to smile slyly at hearing that. "I get it. I'd say I like it, but I'm not sure how that's going to work with you and me. You're going to need to be careful in how flexible and creative you are as my house elf. Those are perfect qualities for a friend who gets caught up in the adventures I have to deal with, but you can't let those qualities create conflicts with what I'm doing. Whenever possible, talk to me first before getting too creative."

Dobby nodded his head as he shook in excitement at the prospect of becoming Jasmine's elf.

Thinking hard for a minute, Jasmine continued, "In fact, that's my first rule. If you're going to be my elf, you've got to agree to some rules first. They are for my own peace of mind, and to ensure that Hermione doesn't kill me. OK?"

The house elf looked a bit nervous at what might be coming, but he readily agreed.

"So, first rule is to try to talk to me first before getting creative when doing something for me or anticipating my needs. Second, don't hold back on advice — I know far too little about magical society. Less than most wizards and witches and certainly far less than you. If you know something that might be useful, you're allowed to speak up. I don't consider you to be inferior, so it's not like I won't listen to your advice or don't want to learn what you know. Third, if you ever want to be free for any reason — like to bond with a different family — let me know. I think slavery is abhorrent and I won't feel like you're a slave if we both know that you can leave when you want."

Dobby was looking more optimistic now — these rules were strange compared to the rules in the Malfoy family, but they'd be easy to follow.

"Fourth, you need to take sufficient time off to rest and stay healthy. A tired, sick elf is no good. Try for at least one day each week — if not all at once, then spread out. Fifth, I'm going to be giving you money — call it a salary if you want or an allowance if you prefer. Use it to buy what you want — socks, wool to knit socks, presents for others, whatever. Sixth, in order to keep my secrets, you'll need to keep working like you have been at Hogwarts and you can't tell anyone about the change. Consider it one of my secrets that you have to keep. Seventh, once you leave here officially you'll get a uniform. It's not clothes, it's a uniform to show that you have an important job. You'll have a say in what it looks like, but we'll need to limit the colors."

Jasmine stopped at this point and thought a bit more, but couldn't come up with anything else. "That's it for now. I might think of other rules... or perhaps I should say, Hermione will. Oh, wait! One more! Eighth, you cannot punish yourself! If you think you've done something wrong, tell me. If I agree, we'll work out some sort of punishment. But you're not allowed to punish yourself on your own. That's my job. Now, I think those cover the most important points. Can you accept them? Can you be my house elf with those rules?"

"Oh, yes, Missy Jazzy, Dobby can do!"

"OK, then. Here we go." Deciding to improvise at the last second, because that's just the sort of thing she did, Jasmine suddenly reached her hands out and placed them both flat on the top of Dobby's head. "I take Dobby to be my house elf, to be my friend and to be a part of the Potter family."

Gasping, Dobby's eyes grew wide, and a magical glow surrounded both of the figures on the floor. "Wow," Jasmine said as she leaned back again after the glow dissipated, "Was that supposed to happen?"

Dobby, who was looking a bit taller, shook his head. "No, there rarely be bonding glow when accepting house elf bond. Dobby never see or hear of such large, bright glowing! The Great Mistress Jasmine Potter Ma'am be truly a powerful and wonderful witch!"

Looking at her watch, Jasmine said, "We should talk about that, but we don't have the time. What's next? What can you tell me about Potter vaults?"

Dobby started bouncing lightly on the balls of his feet and said, "Because of link Dobby knowing that vaults existed, but couldn't go there. Now Dobby can. Dobby can't be taking mistress past Goblin wards, but Dobby can go hisself!"

"OK, great. Since I don't know what's in the vaults yet, I can't tell you exactly what to get. So here's where you get to employ your powers of creativity. I'll tell you in general terms what I need, and you fetch items that you think will fit. You may need to travel back and forth a few times until we get it right. Can you do that?"

"Yes, Dobby can do! Dobby can do!"

Pulling the excited house elf closer to her, Jasmine started whispering, explaining what sorts of things she was looking for and why. Dobby just kept nodding his head. Apparently, the house elf bond helped him understand what his mistress wanted, and he was confident that he'd be able to fulfill all her desires, even those she didn't know about yet.

And there were oh so many things going on that Mistress didn't know about yet — but Dobby did. Dobby could _see_. And Mistress did tell Dobby that he could be _creative_...

* * *

**Monday, December 21, 1994, Early Afternoon.**

Sitting down at a library table so she could write to her parents, Hermione stacked up some books around her to mask what she was doing and reflected that she was lucky that Jasmine was being so mysterious today. She couldn't immediately find the auburn-haired witch when she got out of bed that morning, and she only ended up seeing her for a few minutes at breakfast. During lunch, she had been completely absent. Hermione was desperate to know what she was up to — any time she was up to something in such a secretive manner, it boded ill for the rest of the castle — but right now, she needed to write home and didn't want Jasmine around, asking questions.

Hermione was a bit ashamed about that, actually. She still hadn't written to her parents to let them know that she was dating. It would have been embarrassing enough to have to admit to such a thing if she were dating a boy, but she wasn't sure how her parents would react to learning that she was dating a girl — even if said girl was her best friend, a girl her parents had already heard lots about and seemed to think well of. Perhaps if she'd had a closer relationship with her parents, she'd find it easier to predict their reactions. It might be easier to trust that they'd do the right thing.

 _Maybe they would be accepting of Jasmine and me,_ Hermione mused. _Their politics are fairly progressive, but I've never heard them say anything about homosexuality. They never said anything critical about Maggie's Section 28, and it was all over the news for quite a while before I came to Hogwarts. I also don't think they've commented on the Europride festivals that have been in the news the past couple of summers._

Hermione sighed in frustration. _Even if I could be sure that they would be accepting, this isn't something that I can announce in a letter. I'm not even sure that a phone call would be good enough! It will have to wait until summer._ Until then, she needed to be... _creative_ in what she would say.

After thanking her parents for the money they sent, telling them about the dress she bought, and eating a bit more crow over her earlier insistence that she'd never go to any such event, she went on to tell them generalities about what had been going on in the castle. As usual, she wrote at length about Jasmine and what Jasmine had been doing, though she found that she had some trouble not revealing too much.

Once her letter was completed, she moved on to her personal research project. She had examined all the books on magical marriage that she could find and was ready to move on to the next topic: sex. Although the thought of researching sex made her cheeks grow warm, she reminded herself that it wasn't so much the act that she was trying to learn about, but rather wizarding attitudes towards sex and sexual relationships. Since there weren't any books on sexual orientation, that seemed like the best topic to pursue.

Finding books on sex, though, was going to be tricky. She certainly couldn't ask Madam Pince — not after the suspicious looks she got when she asked about marriage! And there didn't seem to be any sections of the library devoted to it, which was hardly a surprise. Nevertheless, Hermione was convinced that there must be at least a few. She just had to hunt them down.

* * *

**Tuesday, December 22, 1994, Early Morning.**

"Missy Jazzy! Missy Jazzy!"

Bleary-eyed, Jasmine awoke to find two massive eyes staring unblinkingly back at her from about two inches away.

" **Gah!** " Bolting upright and suddenly breathing heavily, Jasmine recognized the eyes as belonging to her new house elf, who was now looking frightened and worried.

"It's OK, Dobby, I'm not mad. Just startled. Please wake me a bit more gently in the morning." Looking around at how dark was, she added, "And, speaking of morning... is it morning? What the heck time is it, anyway?" Grabbing her watch, she saw that it was 3AM. Slumping back in exhaustion, she groaned, "And please, don't wake me so early if it's not an emergency. If it's an emergency, get me. If it's not, it can wait."

"Dobby be sorry, Missy Jazzy. Dobby go now and come back..." The elf raised his hand to snap his fingers, but Jasmine grabbed his wrist before he could complete the action.

"No, don't. I'm awake now. You might as well tell me, and then I'll go back to sleep. Just remember for next time, OK?"

"Yes, Missy Jazzy." Dobby snapped his fingers, and a medium-sized box appeared on the bed next to her.

Jasmine's eyes widened in excitement. "This is it?" she asked, "You got everything?"

"Yes, Missy Jazzy," Dobby said, just as excited himself. Yesterday the two of them learned that she did indeed have more vaults — two more, in fact. Well, technically they were Potter vaults. One was filled with money, and she wouldn't have access to it until she was of age. The second was for heirlooms and property. She had limited access to this. What she didn't know was that Dobby had had to be _creative_ in his explanations to the Goblins in order to get access for gifts. Jasmine wasn't allowed to take items out to gift them to just any old person, but for the right person, Potter family heirlooms could be made available.

For the rest of Missy Jazzy's friends, Dobby would have to use gold to make purchases in Diagon Alley.

So Dobby searched the vault to see what was available, then went back and forth several times so Jasmine could examine some of her options. Apparently, he had spent a good chunk of the night finalizing the selections.

Quickly sitting back up, she opened the box and pulled out the first item: a copy of _Hogwarts: A History_. Not the current Revised Edition by Bathilda Bagshot, but a 5th Edition of the original version published in 1208. It was the oldest one in the Potter vault and possibly one of the oldest editions still in existence. It didn't hold much interest for Jasmine personally, but she knew that Hermione would love it. It was her favorite book, after all, and this would provide more pleasure reading than any book on strictly academic topics like Runes or Charms.

Leafing briefly through the book, she took a closer look at the text and frowned. _Is this even English?_ she wondered. Well, Hermione would figure it out. She carefully closed the ancient tome and set it aside.

Next came a medium-sized jewelry box. Inside was a matching necklace and earring set. Made up of dozens of sparkling diamonds and sapphires, Jasmine knew that they would look gorgeous on Hermione with her periwinkle blue dress. Of special note was the presence of a few emeralds for contrast — Jasmine thought that they would serve as a small nod to her own green eyes, but not one which anyone else would recognize.

Finally, at the bottom, was the primary gift: a ring that Jasmine thought would be wonderful as a promise ring. At first she wasn't sure that the two of them were far enough along in their relationship for such a thing and so didn't want to call it a promise ring. _Merlin, has it really only been twelve days?_ However, when she explained the concept to Dobby, he seemed convinced that it was perfect for them. She decided to agree — she wanted to give Hermione this ring, and she wanted to give her a promise to go along with it, so she trusted Dobby's judgment.

Upon opening the box, though, she was confronted with a surprise: **two** rings. Two identical rings, each a silver Celtic knot encrusted with tiny gemstones. Looking more closely at one of them, she could see delicate peridot and pale blue topaz forming intricate green and blue bands intertwined around a central white diamond. They were exquisite.

"What's this, Dobby? I only need one ring, right?"

Bouncing on the balls of his feet, Dobby said, "Potter vault be having many rings and ring sets. This Potter ring be part of set — one ring for witch and one ring for wizard. But Missy Jazzy not having wizard to give wizard ring to, so Dobby asking goblins to reforge wizard ring into second witch's ring. Now Missy Jazzy be having two rings for two witchy witches: Missy Jazzy and Missy Hermy!"

Jasmine looked down again at the rings and felt a lump in her throat at how thoughtful the house elf had been. Encouraging him to be creative was turning out to be a good idea. "Thank you, Dobby," she said as she wiped away a tear, "you have no idea how much this means to me. There's no way I could have done as well myself — I'd never have thought of matching rings. You're the best, Dobby. You're the best house elf ever."

Reaching out, she pulled Dobby into a tight hug as he started sobbing, too. Both had spent years being abused and unappreciated by their families. They were kindred spirits, and in each other they found some of the love and appreciation they had always longed for.

* * *

On the next bed over, completely oblivious to the presence of Dobby or how it would soon impact her, Hermione was also awake. Unlike Jasmine, though, she hadn't woken early; instead, she hadn't even gone to sleep because she had stayed up all night reading the book she received from Minerva McGonagall. Yesterday's effort to search the library for books on sex had been a bust, and while she wasn't ready to give up entirely, she was also too impatient to wait.

So when she got to bed the previous night, she decided to reach for the only resource currently available: Pureheart's _The Power of Love_. Once she got started, however, she found herself unable to stop. One thing she discovered was that the book must have had some sort of expansion charm on it — she was certain that she had read several hundred pages already, but she seemed to only be a fraction of the way through. Somehow, the book had far more pages in it than should normally be possible.

While some students might become discouraged at such a discovery, it only served to excite the bushy-haired witch. She had never known that putting even more pages into books was possible and was delighted by the idea. Hungrily, she turned yet another page and read on avidly through the night.


	11. Love and Dancing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Recommendation: This chapter's recommended fic is "A Long Journey Home" by Rakeesh. One of the best FemHarry fics out there, it probably influenced both my choice of the name "Jasmine" and some of my characterizations. Jasmine Potter, the Girl Who Won, has had a much longer and more interesting life than her best friends ever realized. At the very least, read chapters 1 and 8!

******Tuesday, December 22, 1994, Late Evening.**

Hermione stayed up all night reading Pureheart's _The Power of Love: Love is Never Dangerous_ until late in the morning, then fell asleep with it on her chest and remained that way until nearly dinner. Fortunately she had spelled her bed curtains so only Jasmine could open them — this ensured that no one else caught her with the book, but allowed Jasmine to know where she was. It was a happy but especially frizzy Hermione who finally made her way down to dinner that evening.

"Hermione," Ginny started, a bit unsure about what she was going to ask, "I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but, uh, what happened to your hair?"

"I was wondering about that too," Neville added, "but I was worried about sounding like a prat for asking." Suddenly forced to duck as Ginny threw a crisp at him, Neville just grinned at her.

Sighing in annoyance, Hermione said, "I don't know. It happens sometimes that my hair gets even bushier and frizzier than normal. It doesn't seem to have anything to do with humidity — today, for example, it's not especially humid at all. Last night I didn't do anything different except for staying up late reading instead of practicing spell work as usual."

"It seems to happen more often when you get up from bed," Jasmine observed, "but I have seen it other times as well. I can't think of anything in common about it all, though."

Neville shrugged, not knowing anything about hair care except "wash, then dry." Ginny looked thoughtful and resolved to pay a bit more attention in the future. _I wonder if mum has any books at home that deal with common or even uncommon hair care problems_? she thought to herself.

* * *

At the end of dancing lessons that night, Hermione cautiously approached Jasmine and said, "Jas, I'd like to make a suggestion. But please don't freak out over it."

Jasmine was instantly on her guard, though she knew she shouldn't be. Consciously trying to relax, she replied, "OK, Hermione. I'll be calm. What is it?"

"Well," she continued, "I was thinking about how much you're benefiting from dancing here with Neville in the evenings, and it occurred to me... well... it's just... why don't we ask Viktor to join us for the last two evenings? I have to look good for the opening of the ball as well, and a little practice with Viktor would help me a lot. But I don't want to do it in secret. I want to do it here, with all of you, so he can meet you, too."

Jasmine looked into the face of her girlfriend, so obviously worried that her request would produce a bad reaction. She wished she could take the witch into her arms to reassure her, but she couldn't with Ginny standing right there, watching. Instead, she feigned indecision and looked over at Neville, who shrugged. She smiled, knowing that he was insisting that she make the decision, then turned to their ginger friend. "What do you think, Ginny?"

Ginny seemed to be surprised that her opinion was being asked for, but after only a moment's hesitation she said, "I don't have a problem with it. Might be nice to meet him, at least." She then added with a smirk, "It'll sure annoy Ron that he refused to practice dancing with us!"

Looking back at her girlfriend, Jasmine smiled and said, "I think it's a great idea. You're right, Hermione, you will be better off if you get in some practice with him. And it's also good for the rest of us to get to meet him. I know you two are only going to the ball as friends, but Neville, Ginny, and I ought to look him over to make sure he's worthy of that honor." Tapping her chin, she tried to look thoughtful and wise before adding, "I may have to brush up on my shovel speech, come to think of it."

Hermione's look of outrage was only half in jest as she proceeded to punch Jasmine in the arm. "You! Don't you dare! I'll have you know Viktor Krum is a perfect gentleman! I won't let you give him the wrong impression about us — this tournament is supposed to foster international understanding and cooperation, not give you an excuse to start an international incident!"

Laughing, Jasmine tried to hide behind Neville to escape Hermione's tirade. "C'mon, Neville, let's get your culture and tradition lesson going before Hermione ensures that I spend the Yule Ball in the hospital wing...."  


* * *

**Wednesday, December 23, 1994, Morning.**

Jasmine prevented Hermione from staying up all night reading again, successfully arguing that flipping her wake/sleep schedule like that would only end up causing her trouble in the long run. Hermione hated being denied the chance to once again read in private for several hours, but she reluctantly had to agree that it was better to halt the slide toward a nocturnal schedule now — she'd never get to classes when they restarted in a few weeks if she allowed herself to start sleeping all day and working all night.

As a result, she was awake and present in the Great Hall for breakfast on Wednesday, keeping an eye out for Viktor Krum. As he walked in, she was able to catch his attention and call him over.

When Viktor arrived at the Gryffindor table, Hermione introduced him to her three friends and explained how they had been practicing dancing since shortly after the Yule Ball had been announced. "I'm sure you're already brilliant at dancing, Viktor, but I thought it would be good if the two of us had some time to practice with each other. Since you have to open the ball as a champion, all eyes will be on you — well, on us I guess — so we want to look our best. Also, I thought it might be a good chance for you to get to know my friends a bit, including a fellow champion."

Looking back and forth between the four Hogwarts students, Viktor's ever-present scowl slowly morphed into a halfway neutral expression which Jasmine assumed might count as happiness. "Ja," he said to Hermione, "Sounds like goot idea. You tell me ven and vere, and I be there, ja?"

"Oh, thanks Viktor! It'll be ever so much fun. It would be easiest, I think, for you to meet me outside the Gryffindor common room at 8PM, and I'll take you there."

"Would you like to join us for breakfast, Viktor," Neville asked, "since you're already over here anyway?"

Viktor's face almost cracked into a smile at that before he sat down next to Hermione and started dishing up a plate for himself. The five students spent the rest of breakfast talking, laughing, and getting to know each other. Jasmine noticed that as time passed, Viktor's problems with English seemed to disappear. It was curious, to say the least — she wondered if anyone else had noticed, but she decided to hold her tongue and ask later when they all had some privacy.

All the while, a blue-eyed, blonde part-Veela watched from the Ravenclaw table. It had become clear to all that whatever disagreement had separated Jasmine and Hermione had been patched up. What was clear only to Fleur was that the bond between the two witches had changed. It was now stronger and more harmonious than it had been even shortly before the fight. Something had changed to not only resolve their argument, but actually improve their relationship.

She still couldn't tell what was going on, though. She was definitely going to have to write that letter home. The problem was in figuring out what exactly to say and how to explain her impressions.

* * *

**Wednesday, December 23, 1994, Late Afternoon.**

Once again sequestered behind her bed curtains, Hermione started looking back over the notes she had taken from reading _The Power of Love_. There was still a lot to read, but she thought she had the gist of Pureheart's basic ideas. First, she argued that love is the most powerful force in the world and sex is a close second. Love unites on the emotional, psychological, and spiritual planes while sex merges the partners on the physical plane. When love and sex are brought together, their power is several orders of magnitude greater than either alone.

_Worth remembering_ , Hermione thought, _though I don't know about holding classes on "The Power of Sex" in Hogwarts!_

Second, Pureheart argued that true love must be encouraged, even when it takes non-traditional forms. The more love there was in society, the better off everyone would be. Pureheart seemed to think that more sex would be good, too, because too many sexually repressed people walking around was a disaster waiting to happen. So long as the love and sex were consensual, she argued, they could only be constructive rather than destructive, regardless of what traditions or norms had to say.

_Even muggles have recognized the positive benefits of a healthy sex life_ , observed Hermione as she checked her notes. _This sounds an awful lot like the 1960s slogan "Make Love, Not War," and the book was written much, much earlier._

Pureheart's arguments against the purebloods' rejection of non-traditional relationships were also easy to follow. The purebloods' main concern was that sex should only be for procreation in order to produce heirs. If a relationship couldn't produce heirs, or if it produced children with uncertain lineage, then that relationship should be banned as contrary to the needs of pureblood society.

_But Pureheart says there's magic that enables procreation without sex,_ Hermione noted. _It's complicated and might take several attempts to succeed, but it_ **_is_ ** _possible. It's just not widely known — perhaps because so many purebloods don't want it to be common knowledge?_ So smart witches could still have children with each other, and those children would truly be the offspring of both witches. Hermione turned slightly pink at the personal implications of that, not sure if she should be thinking too much about such things.

Perhaps more important were the hundreds of pages of examples in which Pureheart demonstrated that not just love, but sex, too, could play an important role in magic. _Especially for witches,_ Hermione considered, _because apparently there's a lot of ritual magic that is essentially "feminine" in nature without any need for a masculine component. Pureheart speculates that this might be why ritual magic has fallen out of favor and labeled "Dark" at times — male leaders of magical society have wanted to suppress and demonize magic which they can't participate in or control._

According to the introduction to this section of the book, ritual magic worked best when performed while being mindful of the ancient gods or goddesses. Opinion was divided on whether the ancient gods and goddesses were real individuals, impersonal forces of nature, or something else, but there was no denying that the power of ritual magic could be greatly increased by invoking or at least respecting the appropriate deities.

Some of the magic and rituals which Pureheart described were beyond Hermione's ability to understand. Some of them made her cheeks flush scarlet — especially the accompanying illustrations. Detailed, moving illustrations. She had once found an illustrated sex manual in her parent's bedroom (under the bed, in a box, buried under clothes — she had been incredibly nosey, even at a young age), but that book had nothing on this!

She found it fascinating... perhaps too fascinating, as a matter of fact, because it was starting to give her ideas, and those ideas were distracting her. Hermione always wanted to understand the theory and history behind spells before trying them out practically: she was convinced that the better she understood a spell, the more likely she would be to get it right and the more control she felt she had.

When it came to ritual magic, however, she was experiencing strong temptations to try things out well before she fully understood the theory. The logical part of her brain desired understanding and control, but the rest of her, especially her body, was starting to demand something else. It was... _distracting_. She wasn't sure how she was going to learn all this if her body and hormones kept getting in the way.

_And right now,_ Hermione lamented, _at this moment, my hormones seem to be winning...._

* * *

**Wednesday, December 23, 1994, Evening.**

Still flushed from her earlier activity, Hermione stepped out of the Gryffindor portrait hole to wait for Viktor but found that he was already there. "Oh, Viktor! You're here. Am I late? I'm sorry! Were you waiting long? Did you have any trouble finding us?"

"No, I just arrived," he replied, amused by her nervous babbling, "And ve are both early."

"Good," Hermione said with a relieved smile. "Let's get going." Along the way they met Jasmine, who was waiting at a corner in the corridors. She pulled out the map, verified that they were alone, and led the others to the commandeered classroom where Ginny and Neville were already waiting. Along the way, she explained to Viktor that right after the drawing of the names from the Triwizard Cup, she and Hermione had chosen this classroom as a place where they could study and practice for the tournament. None of the staff had ever offered her anything, so they knew that they'd be on their own in their efforts to keep Jasmine alive. As usual.

Once in the classroom, everyone exchanged formal greetings. This surprised Viktor because he hadn't expected this sort of behavior from this group — it was more formal and refined than what he had seen even among the Slytherins, and they were deliberately putting on airs. He was especially surprised by the fact that Hermione, a muggleborn student, was both familiar and proficient with such customs.

"Really?" asked Jasmine when he told them this. "Sounds like we'll all be in good shape for the Yule Ball, then. The Slytherins shouldn't be able to complain that we lack the sort of culture and refinement that these types of events demand."

With that, Neville began organizing the dancing practice. The pairings were primarily Neville/Jasmine and Viktor/Hermione for obvious reasons, but since they had an odd number of people, Neville made sure there was plenty of switching to ensure that everyone got some time to practice. This also gave everyone experience with the customs surrounding switching off partners in the middle of a dance, and the boys got in practice with how to ask a girl if she would be willing to dance with them.

In a move worthy of a Slytherin, Neville at one point arranged to have Hermione paired off with Jasmine for some dancing. This thrilled the pair at first, because they sadly hadn't had any opportunity to dance together thus far; but it also worried them because there were two people present who didn't know their secret. They tried to laugh it off as a joke while still enjoying it while they could, but they weren't sure how successful they were.

Afterwards they invited Viktor to act as a sort of guest lecturer on magical customs and traditions. The Hogwarts students listed off the sorts of things they had already addressed and wondered what differences there were between Britain and Bulgaria. As it turned out, there weren't all that many — most were minor details that many people would scarcely notice, suggesting that magical communities in different nations had more in common than the students previously realized.

While they were getting ready to leave, Jasmine stepped up to address Viktor. "Say, Viktor, I hope you don't mind, but I have a question I'd like to ask you. It might be a bit personal, but I hope you'll answer it anyway." Hermione suddenly looked nervous, convinced that Jasmine was about to do something stupid and spark a war or something.

Before she could intervene, though, Viktor responded, "Ja, you can ask, and I'll answer if I can."

Smiling, Jasmine proceeded ahead, ignoring the plaintive looks and desperate arm waving from Hermione, who was standing behind Viktor. "All the time you've been here at Hogwarts, you've barely ever shifted your face out of a scowl, and you've struggled to express yourself in basic English. Tonight, though, your face has had dozens of expressions, most of them happy, and you've spoken English almost perfectly — just a bit of an accent, really. What gives?"

The others, including Hermione, stood there stunned at what Jasmine had said. Apparently none of them had given any thought to the differences in Viktor's behavior. The only ones not stunned were Jasmine, who stood there with crossed arms and a self-satisfied grin, and Viktor, who suddenly barked with laughter.

"Ha! Very gut! Ven did you first notice?"

Jasmine answered, "This morning at breakfast your English shifted a little during our conversation. I decided then that I wanted to ask you about it, but I thought it best to wait until tonight when we had some privacy."

Viktor smiled even more broadly before continuing, "Excellent! I vas vondering if anyone vould catch me. I vear a mask most of the time. I play what the Americans vould call a "dumb jock," a sports star with rocks in my head. Early on in school I found that many expected that of me. I tried to show them the truth, but my academic achievements were ignored, so I decided to play into their assumptions. I let people see vat they expect, and so people underestimate me. I still come in near the top of my class at Durmstrang, but hardly anyone notices. Over time, I have found that people tend to reveal more ven I'm around because of how little they regard my mind. I hide in plain sight and have a big advantage over opponents."

Neville, Ginny, and especially Hermione looked upon Viktor with far greater admiration and respect than they had previously. They hadn't exactly categorized him as a "dumb jock" before, but they also hadn't expected him to be an academic powerhouse — or to be such a sneaky observer of human nature.

"I'm extremely honored that you were willing to take off your mask for us," Jasmine said as she held out her hand. "I'm also honored to meet the real Viktor Krum."

He took her hand and shook it firmly, saying, "And the real Viktor Krum is honored to meet the real Jasmine Potter, not some fictional Girl Who Lived." Jasmine's smile got so wide that it threatened to break her face — she could count on two hands the number of people who treated her as "Just Jasmine" rather than as some mythical heroine. That Viktor could recognize the importance of this without having to be told was perhaps the most impressive thing he'd said or done, in her opinion.

Following Jasmine's lead, the others also stepped up to formally greet the "real" Viktor Krum, even Hermione. Viktor had already shown her more of the real him than he typically showed most people, but he still hadn't entirely taken off his mask for her before that evening.

When the group arrived at the portrait before the Gryffindor common room, Viktor bowed and kissed the hands of all three girls in turn. He then pivoted to address Neville, who made a great show of hurriedly putting both hands out of reach behind his back. With a quirk of a smile, the Bulgarian clicked his heels together and inclined his head; Neville grinned and made his own half-bow in return. "Thank you, all of you," Viktor said, "for a vonderful evening. I had more fun than any other time here at Hogwarts. I look forward to doing it again tomorrow."

* * *

**Thursday, December 24, 1994, Morning.**

During breakfast on the morning of Christmas Eve, Hedwig swooped into the Great Hall carrying a letter and a tiny package. Instead of landing in front of Jasmine, as was her usual practice, she landed in front of Hermione. "Oh, Hedwig, do you have a response from my parents?"

**_Preck! Preck!_ **

Untying the letter and package, she offered a rasher of bacon to Jasmine's snowy owl. "Thanks, Hedwig, I really appreciate this."

Looking across at his friend, Neville was curious about what she had received. "I get that that's a letter from your parents, Hermione, but what's with the little box?"

"Oh, we found these in Diagon Alley the summer before my third year," she answered. "They're self-shrinking boxes. My parents can't do magic, obviously, so they can't shrink or enlarge packages like I can. That makes it hard to send back and forth bulky things or larger quantities. These magical boxes, though, are perfect — just fill them, seal the lid, and they automatically shrink! Their weight is reduced proportionally, too. On the other end, you only need to take the lid off, and they enlarge with all their contents."

"Neat," said Ginny. "I'll bet they're popular with squibs and muggleborn. Most wizards and witches probably wouldn't think twice to apply their own shrinking and enlargement charms. Those charms are basic enough that even weak wizards and witches can do them easily."

"You're probably right, Gin," Hermione said. "Come to think of it, that's probably why these boxes were so cheap — not enough demand. Oh, well, I'm just glad that we found them. They've made sending things back and forth with my parents ever so much easier."

While her friends continued with their breakfasts, Hermione opened the letter to see what her parents had to say. After a few minutes she smiled sadly, put it away, and stood up from the table. Jasmine looked at her quizzically, as if to say, _Are you alright?_ Hermione shook her head. _I'll be fine, don't worry about it._

Looking at the others, Hermione announced, "This package likely contains Christmas presents, so I'm going to take it up to my dorm now. I'll probably be studying for the rest of the day, so I may not see some of you until dancing practice this evening. Bye!"

Hermione didn't quite run out of the hall, but she walked quickly enough to elicit some surprise from her friends. Jasmine suspected that her behavior was related to whatever her parents had written in that letter, and she resolved to ask Hermione about it when she got the chance. She also repeated her promise to herself to do something to improve Hermione's relationship with her parents.

If there was anything she could do to ensure that Hermione didn't lose her family, Jasmine was determined to do it. She knew how lonely life was without family.

* * *

**Thursday, December 24, 1994, Afternoon.**

Once again, Hermione Granger attempted to learn from Pureheart's _The Power of Love_ without becoming too distracted. This time, she had a plan: instead of reading about all the magic and rituals which were clearly playing havoc with her hormones, she would focus on the history of non-traditional relationships in the magical communities. She hadn't had trouble with the argument and explanation sections of the book, so she was optimistic that she could deal with the history portion without having to take personal breaks for tension relief.

If anything, the history of non-traditional, loving relationships — especially those involving witches — turned out to be more fascinating than the arguments about the propriety of such relationships. _I had no idea that so many famous witches were involved with other witches!_ Hermione thought. _Well, technically I should say "were probably involved" since we have no direct evidence. If the evidence ever existed, it surely would have been covered up to prevent those witches from becoming the wrong sorts of role models. But the circumstantial evidence is so clear and obvious if you just look at it! It's a shame that we don't learn any of this in Binns' class, but I can't imagine that any of it would go over too well anyway._

Sadly, it seemed that the preference of so many witches in the past for the company of other witches had played a role in the development of witch hunts and anti-magic activity among muggles. _If those witches had settled down with wizards and conformed to what the muggles expected, they wouldn't have attracted so much attention to themselves or caused muggles to blame magic for their "indecency." It's sad that instead of celebrating and encouraging their differences when magicals separated from muggles, magical governments continued to ruthlessly enforce muggle standards of behavior._

Hermione stopped short when she realized the tragic irony of the situation. _The purebloods who hate muggles and muggleborn are also promoting an anti-gay policy which has no basis in anything other than old muggle prejudices — prejudices which led to the witch hunts that the same purebloods cite as a reason to hate muggles!_

She wasn't sure if she should laugh or cry at that. It made the persecution of gays and lesbians in the magical community even more stupid and senseless, but because of the tendency of wizards and witches to simply ignore whatever contradicts their preferred beliefs, she despaired at the possibility at getting any of them to even recognize the problem, much less change their opinions.

It all seemed so hopeless sometimes, but Hermione remembered that she wasn't alone in this. _Doing the impossible is what Jasmine is known for, and we need to make changes if she and I are going to have a happy future together. I_ **_can't_ ** _give up!_

It didn't occur to her how odd it would seem to an observer that she kept thinking of having a long future with Jasmine despite the fact that they had been together barely two weeks. By now, though, such thoughts were becoming so natural and automatic that she tended to accept them without question.

* * *

**Thursday, December 24, 1994, Evening.**

The four Gryffindors and the Bulgarian champion couldn't be with their families on Christmas Eve, but they still had a good time dancing and enjoying one another's company. It wasn't as good as being home, but it was as close as they could reasonably make it.

Everyone felt like they had practiced enough for the Yule Ball, so the dancing they did was more for fun. Instead of the waltzes and other traditional music they expected to dance to at the ball, Neville tuned the Wizarding Wireless to a station playing Christmas music, and everyone danced to that. Hermione and Jasmine once again got pushed together as a dancing couple, trying to laugh it off as before while secretly relishing the opportunity.

Instead of the usual culture and etiquette lesson, Neville explained about magical holiday customs and traditions. Jasmine and Hermione were especially interested to learn how they compared to muggle holiday traditions, wondering how and when muggle and magical customs diverged. Viktor was able to contribute much more on this topic than he had been able to the previous evening — both Bulgaria and the region around Durmstrang had quite a few holiday traditions that differed from those in Britain. Ginny also contributed, describing a few traditions kept by the Weasley family which Neville wasn't familiar with.

All of those raised in the magical community wanted to hear about what muggles did, and Hermione was happy to oblige them. Jasmine was unable to offer much here — the Dursleys had forced her to work hard to make their own Christmas more enjoyable, for example by helping to prepare a large meal, but they never allowed her to participate in any way she might enjoy.

Sitting in a darkened cupboard, looking out through a small grate at other people having a good time, was no way to learn holiday traditions — or to appreciate the holiday at all, for that matter. This had caused Jasmine to approach the holidays with a degree of detachment and indifference which she had yet to entirely shed.

In the background, without anyone noticing, Dobby popped in with Christmas treats for refreshments: hot chocolate, gingerbread cookies, peppermint sticks, and more. Jasmine didn't know for sure that it was Dobby, but she had her suspicions. She kept those suspicions to herself, however, because she wasn't ready to have a conversation with Hermione about that — not yet, at any rate.

Much later, after everyone had gone to bed, Jasmine continued to toss and turn. Since she had never received any Christmas presents until recent years, anticipation for Christmas morning was still mostly a foreign concept to her. Here she was, though, unable to sleep because she was anxious and excited about the following day.

Not about the presents she might receive, however — she was excited about the gifts she had picked out for Hermione. She was also anxious for the same reason. Would Hermione like them? Would she accept them? These thoughts kept swirling around in her head, and it was late when Jasmine Potter finally succumbed to sleep, with visions of Hermione Granger dancing in her head.  



	12. Christmas

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Recommendation: This chapter's recommended fic is "Twas the Day Before Christmas" by apAiden, one of my favorite writers. Harry starts out with Ginny, but she gets unreasonable one time too often and Hermione has to step in to help him, which in turn helps her realize where her heart really lies.

**Friday, December 25, 1994, Christmas Morning.**

"Happy Christmas, Jasmine! Happy Christmas!"

Blinking and bleary-eyed, Jasmine awoke abruptly to find two big brown eyes staring back at her from about two inches away.

" **Gah!** " Bolting upright and suddenly breathing heavy, Jasmine recognized the eyes as belonging to her girlfriend, Hermione Granger.  _Whoa, deja vu_ , she thought.

"Are you  **trying**  to give me a heart attack?" she asked rather heatedly.

Grinning broadly, Hermione answered, "Of course not. I didn't think you'd want to sleep in on such an important morning!" Under Hermione's prodding, Jasmine had finally divulged a bit of her history with Christmas at the Dursleys during their discussion the previous evening. While she had obviously been reluctant to offer many details, Hermione had finally come to understand why the green-eyed witch had never gotten excited about the holidays. This was a situation she found unacceptable and was determined to fix it, now that she understood the cause. "C'mon, let's open presents and then go have Christmas breakfast in the Great Hall."

Sighing in resignation, she let her bushy-haired girlfriend — whose hair was especially bushy after just having gotten up — drag her over to her own bed where she had apparently stacked up the presents that had been left for each of them at the foot of their beds. "Now," she began, "in my family we usually hand out the presents to whomever is there and then take turns opening them. At least, that's what we do when it's a small group, like just me and my parents. When it's a large family gathering, everyone opens the gifts at the same time. What would you like to do?"

Jasmine had never had any real Christmas traditions — well, aside from slaving away all day then being tossed into the cupboard like an unwanted tool — so she was at a bit of a loss. Hermione patiently waited, though, and fought her innate desire to decide what to do and forge ahead. This was for Jasmine, so she needed to make the decision on her own. Finally, the auburn-haired witch said, "I think I like what your family does. So let's pretend like we're with your parents and take turns. Oh! But you have to open mine last. Please? Pretty please?"

Hermione smiled at that last comment — it wasn't something that a completely detached, indifferent person would say. Jasmine cared about what they did, and that was a good sign.

One by one, they each worked through their respective pile of presents. As in past years, their school friends generally gave sweets like packs of chocolate frogs, though Neville went above and beyond by getting high quality wand holsters for both of them. When worn they were invisible and would prevent wands from being summoned, but they would release the wands for their owners with a simple flick of the wrist.

As usual, Mrs. Weasley sent Jasmine her annual Weasley jumper which, also as usual, the young witch immediately put on. Her first Weasley jumper had been her first exposure to personal, hand-made Christmas gifts, and it was a memory she would always treasure.

One pleasant surprise was the presence of a gift for each of them from Professor McGonagall. Following instructions on the tags, they opened the boxes together and found a matched set of journals. According to the instructions, these journals were spelled to have an unending supply of pages, and to only open to the person keyed to the book with a drop of blood.

"Oh!" Hermione cried, "I never thought to get her anything!"

"Don't worry," Jasmine said with a smile, "I got it covered."

"What did you get her?"

Grinning now, Jasmine replied, "You'll have to wait and see when we see her next." Hermione wasn't pleased at being made to wait, but her girlfriend refused to spill any details.

Hermione's parents had sent her several gifts, and what stood out the most for Jasmine was the relatively impersonal nature of all of them: some clothing, warm pyjamas, a new brush set, some toys for Crookshanks, and some sort of dental care kit. The nicest gift was some fancy stationery, but even that stood out as odd because they only time Hermione would likely use muggle stationary was when writing letters back to her parents. So was it more for Hermione or for them?

The Grangers had also sent a gift to Jasmine, and that was most curious. Hermione watched intently as Jasmine tore off the wrapping paper — clearly she wasn't expecting it nor had any idea what was inside. Upon opening the box, Jasmine discovered a small photo album. That wasn't the real surprise, though: the real surprise was that it wasn't empty. The album contained dozens of photos, all of Hermione at different stages of growing up. Most even had labels with her age and the occasion.

"I didn't even know that they had this many photos of me!" Hermione exclaimed. "I don't remember either my mother or my father running around, constantly taking pictures like some parents do. They never struck me as the sentimental types."

"Most of these are candids — only a few are posed," Jasmine pointed out. "So I guess they were taking pictures when you weren't paying attention. Or maybe they got some from other relatives? Regardless, I wonder why they would send this to me and not to you. I can sorta understand sending it to you as a memento of your childhood, but why me?" Jasmine picked up the wrapping paper again and confirmed that, yes, it was for her. "You don't think it was a mistake, do you?"

"No," Hermione answered with a firm shake of her head. "My mother and father almost never make that sort of mistake — they are incredibly meticulous and careful in everything they do. They make  **me**  look sloppy sometimes. So you can assume that it's for you. But I agree, it doesn't make sense."

Jasmine then hugged the book tight to her chest and said, "Well, it's definitely mine now and I'm not giving it up. You look absolutely  **adorable**  in some of these photos. I love it! I'm definitely going to have to send a thank-you letter back with Hedwig!" Jasmine also started thinking of what else she might add to that letter, just to start paving the way to help her girlfriend with her parents.

Hermione looked at her like she was crazy, but turned back to her own pile and saw that she only had the three gifts from Jasmine left. "Well," she said, "it looks like all that's left are the gifts we got for each other. I'm afraid that I only got you one, so shall I open first?"

"Yes!" Jasmine nearly shouted, grabbing and thrusting at Hermione the gift that was clearly book-shaped.

"Hmmm..." Hermione hummed with amusement as she hefted the the package and proceeded to give it a shake. "I wonder what's in here..." Smiling happily, she pulled off the wrapping paper... and was rendered speechless. It was what she expected, and yet also not.

" _Hogwarts: A History_?" Opening the cover, she read: "Fifth Edition? 1208? Sweet Merlin, Jasmine, where did you get this? How much did you spend? How could you spend so much on me? You shouldn't waste your money on me like that! You know you mmmpppff!" Once again, Jasmine stopped Hermione's tirade by planting a firm kiss on her lips.

"You know, Hermione," she said with a smile, "we've already established a precedent for me responding to your babbling with kisses. If you keep it up, I'm going to have to assume that you're doing it on purpose because you  **want**  me to kiss you like that."

"Jasmine! Honestly!"

"Stop worrying about it," Jasmine insisted. "The book didn't cost me a thing — it's a family heirloom." Hermione opened her mouth to protest some more, but she was interrupted by Jasmine. "Yes, it turns out that the Potter family does have other vaults. Yes, one, is for heirlooms like this. No, I didn't tell you because if I had then I wouldn't be able to surprise you with this. No, I won't tell you how I got it — it's a secret that I'll share with you another day."

Hermione looked rather annoyed at that, but Jasmine added a little plaintively, "Please, can we just enjoy the gifts today?" That got a reaction, and Hermione looked a bit contrite over pestering Jasmine for details that weren't truly important at the moment. Her goal had been to help Jasmine learn how to enjoy Christmas, but here she was, being pushy instead of appreciative.

Caressing the book in manner that Jasmine thought looked a wee bit too...  _intimate_ , Hermione said, "Thank you, Jasmine. Thank you so much. I can't wait to start reading this. It's a treasure. I'll bet not many copies of this even still exist!"

Jasmine smiled, "Good, I'm glad you like it. I thought that would be a pretty safe gift. Should I open mine, now? The other two there for you are sort of related, so it makes sense to open them together."

"OK, yes, do open it," Hermione answered, looking slightly nervous at what the remaining gifts might contain if they deserved to come  **after**  that book.

Unwrapping the gift from her girlfriend, Jasmine discovered... another photo album. Looking up, she said dryly, "Really, Hermione? A photo album? You're sure that you didn't coordinate this with your parents?"

"Yes!" Hermione said with some exasperation. "I had no idea that they would do that. If I had, I'd have tried to come up with something else — and they had no idea what I was getting you, either. I can't believe that my own parents — and probably my mother, specifically — would preempt my gift like that!" She was clearly annoyed, but Jasmine didn't mind. Flipping through her new, second photo album she found all sorts of pictures of her, Hermione, and their friends from the past three years.

"Don't sweat it, Hermione. Great minds think alike, right? This is a fantastic gift. And it's not really the same gift, since these are wizarding photos taken in a very different context. Where did you get them all?"

A bit calmer now, Hermione explained, "Most are from Colin. I got him to sell me copies of a lot of different photos he's taken over the past couple of years. I also paid him to take some new ones for this year. Finally, I was able to get a few from older students who I knew had cameras at different times. That's why there aren't many photos from our first year."

"You know," Jasmine said thoughtfully, "Maybe you and I should get a magical camera. Then we wouldn't have to rely on Colin and others."

"Oh, that's a good idea," Hermione said excitedly. "I hadn't thought about that. I never think about taking photos, but now looking at these two albums, I'm starting to see what I've been missing. We'll check Hogsmeade the next time we can go into town."

"Great," the auburn-haired witch said. "Now it's your turn. Open the larger one first."

Unwrapping the gift slowly, a bit nervous about what she might discover, she found what was clearly a jewelry case. Her head snapped up, eyes wide, but didn't say anything. With her hands shaking slightly, she flipped open the lid and saw the exquisite — and expensive — necklace and earring set.

Seeing that her girlfriend was not only speechless, but in fact barely able to breathe, Jasmine slid over next to her and started to explain, "I got these for you to wear for the Yule Ball tonight. They're all real diamonds and sapphires, with some small emeralds thrown in. I hoped you'd see the emeralds as a subtle link to me. I already know that you're going to be the prettiest witch at the ball, but I'm hoping that with these you'll stand out while everyone else is dull and colorless next to you."

Hermione had no idea what to say. She'd never had jewelry like this. In fact, she was pretty sure that her mother never had anything remotely like this either. She was no expert, but she suspected that the necklace might be worth as much as her parents' house. She wasn't sure she could or should wear something that expensive. "Jasmine," she started, "This is too much. I couldn't possibly..."

"Why not?" Jasmine interrupted. "Who else is going to wear them? They are Potter family heirlooms and there are no Potters left except for me. If no one wears them, they'll sit useless in a vault that no one ever enters. They are literally worthless to me if they are sitting in the vault — they were worthless to me last month when I didn't know about them, and they'll be worthless to me if you insist that I send them back. The  **only**  value they have to me is in making you look even more beautiful. So tell me, what should I do with them?"

Looking back and forth between the gift and the giver, Hermione finally said, "If these came from your family's heirloom vault, then they must have been important to your family at some point. Maybe very important. You should value them as a connection to your family, at the very least."

Jasmine had to consider that for a minute. It wasn't a factor she had taken into account — she had been focused on gifts, not links to family she never knew about. Hermione was right, though, which means that that vault might have lots of information for her. But that was a subject for another time.

"OK, Hermione, you may have a point," Jasmine conceded, "but unless I can find out who owned it before and why, then that link doesn't exist for me. And even if I do discover it, I think that I will place far more value on the connection it  **creates**  between you and me than on a connection it signifies between me and some long-dead ancestor. Remember, those people are complete strangers to me, and that won't be changed simply by knowing that some many times great-grandmother of mine received these for a birthday. So again, the real value for me lies in you wearing them."

Frowning, Hermione tried another approach, "What if I just borrow them for the evening?"

That this was a mistake became evident almost immediately as Jasmine started to pull back in on herself. "Do you... not like them?" she asked. "I just wanted to give you something nice. I've never had anything nice myself, much less had anything nice to give. Now that I do, I... I... well, I wanted to share it with you, because you're so much more important to me."

Hermione realized that she couldn't just refuse the gift, even though she also felt that it was far too extravagant. Deciding on what she thought might be a better compromise, she threw her arms around Jasmine and whispered, "Thank you. I do love them, I just don't want to feel obligated to you after receiving such a huge gift." Jasmine was about to protest, but Hermione stopped her with a kiss. "I know you won't feel like I'm obligated to you, but  **I'll**  feel that way. So let's do this: you give them to me as a gift, but you store them in your family vault for me. I'll feel better if they remain under your control, and my trunk isn't secure enough for something so expensive anyway. OK?"

Jasmine had to think about that for a moment, but finally she agreed. When Hermione looked down at the third and final gift, she felt more than a little trepidation. Having seen the quality of the first two, she was concerned about what might be behind door number three.

Instead of waiting for Hermione to act, Jasmine picked up the last gift herself and started talking, her nervousness showing through clearly. "Hermione, this gift is special. It's not even really a Christmas gift, it's something much, much more. It's about you and me. It's about how important you are to me, and how committed I am to making this relationship work. I know you've been a bit confused regarding your sexuality, but I think things are pretty good between us, and I know that it's going to get better."

Pulling off the paper, she ignored Hermione's gasp when the witch saw what was obviously a ring box. Jasmine opened the box, revealing two gorgeous rings. "These are two promise rings, one for you and one for me. Originally there was a wizard's ring and a witch's ring, but the goblins reforged the wizard's ring into a duplicate witch's ring."

Taking a deep breath, she continued, "I'm giving you your ring with a promise: Hermione Jane Granger, I promise I will treasure you, honor you, and respect you for all the days we are together. I promise I will listen to you, be honest with you, and work to improve myself so I can be the sort of witch you cherish and respect. And I promise that we'll work together to create a society where, someday, I can officially and legally put a much more significant ring on your finger."

After removing one of the rings, she set the box down and held the ring out with a questioning, expectant look on her face. It was all up to Hermione now. She could either accept or she could refuse. Jasmine was right that this was not a typical gift. This was a gift that came with a serious commitment — both in the offering and in the accepting.

Hermione, of course, took a few moments to think about what was happening. Despite being sorted into the house of the lions, she did not typically succumb to taking rash or hasty action.

Staring at the ring, she thought,  _Am I ready for something like this? Merlin, it was only a few days ago that I even started to accept that I may indeed be attracted to girls! And it was only two weeks ago that I got my first kiss! Isn't this too fast?_

But then again, she had been with Jasmine for over three years now.  _We've been together more and done more together than most dating couples… than most married couples, even. The_ _ **romance**_   _may be new, but the_ _ **relationship**_   _isn't, and maybe that's why I've experienced such a strong pull towards her over the past few weeks. Logic is trying to tell me that this is too fast, but every other fiber of my being is shouting at me that this is right._

She looked up from the ring and stared into the beautiful green eyes of her girlfriend, and suddenly all doubt fled her mind. She somehow knew exactly what the right thing to do was and without any further hesitation, she held out a slightly trembling left hand and waited as Jasmine slowly slid it on her ring finger. As they both watched, it magically resized so that it fit perfectly, and then immediately a warm, yellow glow surrounded both their hands as Jasmine's promise became magically binding.

Grabbing the box before her logic could interfere and cause her to chicken out, Hermione pulled out the second ring. Jasmine held her hand over it, though, and asked, "Are you sure? You don't have to do this."

"No, but I want to," Hermione said a little breathily, "I really do. And besides, what's the sense in accepting your promise without making my own?"

Holding out the ring, she took Jasmine's left hand in her own and recited the same promise Jasmine made as she placed the second witch's ring on Jasmine's finger. As with Hermione's ring, it magically resized until it fit perfectly. The same yellow glow also surrounded their hands as Hermione's promise became magically binding.

Hermione then held out her left hand, and the two witches looked at the two rings on the two hands, side-by-side.

As she was about to close the box, Hermione noticed a tiny corner of parchment sticking up from behind the ring mounts. Pulling it out, she discovered that it was a message from the goblin who had reforged the wizard's ring. "According to Silverflare, master metalsmith," she explained to Jasmine, "these rings originally came with several enchantments, all of which he restored to the reforged ring. They resize to fit our fingers, they can only be removed by us, they can be willed invisible or visible, they will never tarnish, they are highly resistant to damage, and they will never snag on clothing. For appropriate fees, there are more enchantments that can be added, like a warning for dangerous potions that are close to that hand."

Jasmine looked at her hand, and after scrunching up her face in intense concentration, she made the ring disappear. "Spiffy! Hey, I can still feel it — I just can't see it!"

Hermione did the same with her own ring, though with a lot less obvious effort. "Good thing, too. I don't think we'd have gotten away with wearing identical rings without raising some difficult questions. You know it would take Lavender or Parvati all of about five seconds to notice one of the rings, another three seconds to notice that we have matching rings, and one more second to start asking awkward questions."

"Uh, yeah," said Jasmine sheepishly. "Sorry. I didn't think of that. I was so excited about giving you a promise ring that I didn't consider anything else. Actually, it was only supposed to be a ring for you — the discovery of a second ring that could be reforged was a lucky accident. So I didn't plan that one out."

Not bothering to say anything in response, Hermione grabbed her girlfriend by the front of her pyjamas and started snogging her senseless. A bit later, when they were out of breath and more than a little disheveled, Jasmine remarked that that was easily the best Christmas gift she'd ever gotten, earning her a light punch and another long snog from Hermione, who seemed determined to improve on their previous experience.

During their explorations, the blue and green glows returned to their chests, with tendrils once again reaching out from each towards the other. Unfortunately, the glowing was never given the chance to progress further than last time: contact, but no more.

* * *

**Friday, December 25, 1994, Early Christmas Afternoon.**

After finally managing to drag themselves down to a late breakfast, during which Jasmine sampled gingerbread pancakes for the first time and confidently declared them the Best Christmas Breakfast Ever, the Gryffindor friends were faced with an abundance of free time — time they didn't want to fill up with work, but for which they had no pre-planned activities. Remembering the newly fallen coating of snow she had spied out the windows earlier, Hermione dragged them all outside.

Jasmine had never had the opportunity to enjoy a snowball fight before Hogwarts (she didn't think it counted to get pelted by hunks of ice by Dudley and his gang) and had only had a couple of opportunities since. Hermione herself had never been a big fan, but she wanted Jasmine to relax and enjoy the day so she insisted — and when Hermione insists, it's tough for even the most stalwart Gryffindor to successfully resist.

Teams were formed, with Hermione, Jasmine, Dean Thomas, and a newly arrived Viktor Krum on one side and Ginny, Neville, Ron, and the Weasley twins on the other. Team Weasley (one of the twins charmed Neville's hair red, just so he'd fit in) had an advantage in numbers and in the twins' experience with pranks. Team Random (because no one could think of a name that fit them all) had power with Viktor, but Dean Thomas was the only one with much experience with snowball fights as a kid.

The advantage of numbers proved to be a challenge, but it was the advantage of pranks that was impossible to overcome. Someone had neglected to set "no magic" as a rule, and after a while the twins decided to put an end to things by levitating an entire snow bank over their opponents, only letting go when the foursome noticed the sudden shadow and comically looked up at their impending doom. Luckily Viktor was capable of rather powerful drying and warming charms, so no one froze solid, but the looks from Hermione and Jasmine promised painful retribution in the near future.

Begging off returning immediately to the castle, Jasmine and Hermione opted to take a walk and enjoy the winter scenery for a bit. They had few opportunities to simply act like a normal couple in love, and while even now they couldn't do things that other couples took for granted, like holding hands, at least they could pretend.

"The castle and grounds are beautiful with the snow, don't you think?" Hermione asked.

Sighing, Jasmine agreed, "Yes, and I think it would be almost sappily romantic for anyone else. It's so hard to hold back and not grab your hand or put my arm around you. Merlin, Hermione, how long do you think it will be before couples like us can walk around in public like anyone else?"

Pulling her arms tight against herself, whether to stave off the cold or to resist her own temptations, Hermione answered, "I don't know, Jas. But as long as we're together, I know we'll be alright."

Eventually they made their way back to the Gryffindor common room, where Ron asked Jasmine if she wanted to play a game of chess. It was Hermione who answered, though. "Can't, Ron. Don't have time. We need to go start getting ready for the ball."

"What?" asked Ron. "It's only 4PM. Why would you need four hours to get ready?"

"Yeah," agreed Jasmine. "Why do we need four hours? I didn't plan on starting until at least seven."

"Seven?" Hermione practically squeaked. "Jasmine, what's the matter with you? We have far too much to deal with! We have to shower. We have to shave. We have to pluck. We have to..."

At that point, Ron started quickly backing away. Putting his hands up against his ears and shaking, he said, "I don't want to know. I didn't hear any of that. Don't tell me, please don't say any more..."

Looking even more aghast, Jasmine said, "Pluck? Pluck what? Where? What do you have planned?"

Smirking now, Hermione grabbed her girlfriend's hand and started dragging her to the dorm. "Oh, Jasmine, I forgot that you've never had to prepare yourself for an event like this. And of course your dearest aunt never taught you about this sort of thing, either, did she? You have so much to learn and not much time to learn it in. I'm sure Lavender, Parvati, and the others might be willing to lend a hand to help, too. Maybe they'll treat you as their new project."

"Oh, no. No, please no. Can't we talk about this? Compromise, maybe?" Jasmine's pleading cries became more and more desperate as she was pulled inexorably towards the now ominous-looking door to the fourth-year girls' dorm. "Ron! Neville! You gotta help me here! I'm too young to be... to be...  **PLUCKED!** "


	13. Get Ready: Yule Ball, Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This is the shortest chapter out of all of those for the 4th year — the Yule Ball was simply too long for a single chapter and the best dividing point left this chapter a bit short.
> 
> Recommendation: This chapter's recommended fic is "Inspected by No 13" by Clell65619. The "power he knows not" is... bureaucracy! Clell has written some hilarious fics and this is one of the more amusing.

 

**Friday, December 25, 1994, Christmas Evening.**

Neville Longbottom stood in the Gryffindor common room waiting for his Yule Ball date, Jasmine Potter. The two of them had chosen this as his waiting spot instead of down in the Great Hall because once Jasmine joined him, they would then watch for the entrance of Hermione Granger — the person Jasmine actually wanted to go to the ball with but couldn't because of magical society's bias against same-sex couples.

This would allow the three of them to walk to the Great Hall together, thus giving the two witches the chance to pretend that they were walking to the ball as a couple rather than merely as friends. It was a poor substitute for being able to enjoy an actual date, but the intense bigotry of magical Britain didn't provide them with many options.

Half an hour before the official start of the ball, Jasmine descended the steps from the girls' dorm wearing her blue dress. It fit her well, but she was sure that everyone could tell she wasn't entirely comfortable in it. When she had first put it on she kept tugging at it because of how it pinched in unexpected places. She probably never would have bothered getting a dress if Mrs. Weasley hadn't dragged her to Diagon Alley just before school started, though in retrospect it was probably for the best because she hadn't seen anything in Hogsmeade that she liked any better.

Jasmine's discomfort with wearing a dress was hardly surprising, since it was the first time she'd ever worn a real dress like this: the Dursleys had certainly never bought her anything like it and never would have taken her to a nice event regardless. She was at least lucky that as a girl, she hadn't been forced to wear nothing but Dudley's oversized cast-offs while growing up.

Feeling a bit self-conscious as she walked up to Neville and trying to be far more graceful and feminine than she usually managed, Jasmine smiled and said, "Hey. You're looking good — quite dapper, in fact."

After finally closing his mouth, Neville managed to regain the power of speech. "Wow, Jasmine, you look absolutely stunning. I don't think I've ever seen you look so good. You're certainly better than any of the other girls who have come down so far."

Unused to such compliments, Jasmine stared down at her feet and shyly mumbled, "Thanks."

Reaching down to the table next to him, he picked up one of the wrist corsages the girls had purchased from Magical Blooms in Hogsmeade. He had already ensured that Viktor had the second for Hermione. After he placed it on Jasmine's wrist, they both watched it for a few moments as it shifted to match the color scheme of Jasmine's dress. When he had first been shown the lilies, Neville was so fascinated that he became determined to figure out how it was done — and to eventually improve upon it. Given his flair for herbology and magical plants, his friends were looking forward to seeing the results.

"So, how are you feeling?" Neville asked. "Ready for the ball?"

Jasmine gave him a withering glare. "How do I feel? Plucked, that's how I feel."

Neville simply raised one eyebrow at that, and Jasmine continued, "And no, I don't mean that in a good way. I feel... plucked up. Plucked off."

"You're not going to let that go, are you?" Neville asked warily.

"Oh, hell no. I'm milking it for all it's worth. I figure I got until Sunday until it's completely worn out. I swear, Hermione is a menace with those tweezers! And then Lavender taught her this special witch's plucking spell! You should see how red my..."

"No!" Neville suddenly said in a panic, eyes going wide. "I don't want to know. I believe you, really I do!"

Grinning, Jasmine retorted, "Wuss. I went through a lot of pain and suffering to become your date. The least you could do is share some of it vicariously."

Narrowing his eyes, Neville held her gaze for a moment before saying, "Yeah? Well...pluck you."

"Ha!" Jasmine barked in laughter before clapping him on the shoulder. "That's the spirit!"

Ron jogged by while Jasmine was still laughing, and Neville called out to him, "Where are you going in such a hurry?"

Calling back over his shoulder while trying to smooth out his still-wet hair, Ron answered, "Gotta pick up my date at the entrance to Ravenclaw dorms." Just as quickly as he had appeared, he was gone.

"Do you know who he's taking as his date?" Jasmine asked.

"Nope, I only know that Ginny arranged it," Neville answered. "After you stormed out the other evening, she grabbed her brother and gave him a lesson on how to treat girls — with the lesson delivered at wand point, if I'm not mistaken. I think she might have left a couple of scars, too. He must have passed his lesson, because that was the requirement before she would set him up with a friend of hers. Apparently it's a Ravenclaw friend, but I have no idea what her name is."

"I guess we'll see her when we're down at the Ball, then," Jasmine responded. "Do you think he ever learned to dance?"

Neville grimaced. "You weren't around, but Professor McGonagall offered some basic dancing lessons to any Gryffindors who needed them. I didn't go, obviously, but I heard the stories from Dean and Seamus. She talked about young wizards being lordly lions waiting to pounce or something, and that made everyone nervous. Then she picked Ron to be her partner while showing everyone else what to do."

Jasmine's eyes grew wide at this, and she struggled to hold in her laughter. "Ron?" she asked. "What possessed her to do that?"

"I have no idea," Neville said, shaking his head. "Dean said that Ron went white as a sheet, and when he finally did join her on the dance floor, she had to physically move his hand to put it on her waist — he refused to do it himself!"

Jasmine couldn't hold back her snort at that bit of news, but Neville wasn't done. "Then, once he was in position, he barely moved! It was like he was frozen in place, looking at her like  _she_  was the lion waiting to eat him!" Jasmine had one hand over her mouth and the other clutched tight to her stomach, holding in her laughs, when Neville suddenly poked her in her arm and then pointed up to the top of the steps that led to the girls' dorms.

When Jasmine looked, her breath left her in a gasp as she saw Hermione, who had clearly waited until Jasmine noticed her. The brunette witch stood there for a few seconds before slowly descending the stone steps. Although she had only ever attended formal functions with her parents a few times in her life, her mother had trained her well in how to move in a dress and heels, so Hermione's descent was done with far more grace and elegance than most girls of her age — and certainly more than Jasmine knew herself to be capable of.

The cascading ruffles created an enchanting effect as Hermione walked, and the jewelry which Jasmine had given her earlier in the day sparkled amazingly in the candle and firelight. Jasmine sucked in her breath and felt as though her heart must have stopped. For that short time while Hermione came down into the common room and approached her, nothing else existed in the universe — there was just her and the vision approaching her.

_Merlin_ , Jasmine thought,  _what's happening to me? I already knew what her dress looked like. I helped her squeeze into it! I was there when she tamed her hair and put on her makeup. I gave her the jewelry. Why do I feel like this is the first time I've ever seen her, even though I left her not a couple of minutes ago?_

Finally reaching her two friends, Hermione demurely said, "Hello." Neville returned her greeting while Jasmine simply gaped at her. Reaching out, Hermione placed a single finger underneath Jasmine's chin and closed her mouth with an audible clack. "Flies, luv."

Neville rolled his eyes and began to pull Jasmine towards the common room exit. "Let's go," he said softly, "before Jasmine makes a scene here in public by jumping you." Hermione laughed at Jasmine's ensuing pout, and once they were all outside in the corridor, Jasmine took her place in between the other two. This allowed her to hook arms with both — her official date on one side and her secret girlfriend on the other.

The three Gryffindors took as much time as they reasonably could to walk down to the entrance to the Great Hall where Viktor was waiting to be Hermione's escort. They knew that once they stepped into that public spotlight, Jasmine and Hermione would have to separate and stay separated unless they could find a place that provided absolute privacy. They weren't sure if that was even going to be possible, so they made a point of savoring what little time they had.

* * *

**Friday, December 25, 1994, Yule Ball.**

Standing in the Hogwarts Entry Hall, Viktor Krum waited patiently for the arrival of his date to the Yule Ball. In the past there had usually been a lot of pressure on him during these sorts of events, both because he was a Quidditch star and because he wanted to make a good impression on whoever his date was.

This time that wasn't as much of an issue, though. He was still a public figure as both a Quidditch star and now the Triwizard Champion for Durmstrang, yet he didn't have the additional pressure of needing to impress the girl accompanying him. They were only going together as friends, and since he had gotten to know Hermione Granger fairly well, he was already comfortable with her.

He had been worried about being pressed by fangirls who wanted to date him...and then would want something more. In the past he occasionally indulged in such attention, but ever since getting engaged to his long-time girlfriend Yulia, he had worked hard to avoid temptation. Finding out about Hermione, the muggleborn witch who cared more about books than socializing and not at all about Quidditch, had been a stroke of luck.

Overall he had to count himself fortunate. Not only did it look like he'd be forming a decent friendship with her, but he seemed to be doing the same with her friends — including fellow Triwizard Champion Jasmine Potter.  _Speak of the devil_ , Viktor thought to himself as his gaze moved to the steps leading into the castle's upper floors,  _there the three of them come now. Interesting that they all have their arms hooked together — and that Jasmine is in the middle instead of Neville._

Viktor thought that Jasmine was quite the conundrum. She was famous as The Girl Who Lived yet seemed to shun attention. At first he had assumed like most everyone else that she must have cheated to get her name in the cup, but he soon changed his mind when he observed how much she disliked being a champion. He also grew to become outraged over how the school, both students and staff, had treated her — she didn't deserve that sort of harassment. He had considered saying something, but he hadn't thought it was his place. If nothing else, this tournament was giving him a low opinion of Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore, and Britain.

"Good evening, Miss Granger," he said as he bowed to his date, hiding his shocked expression at the incredibly beautiful and expensive jewelry she was wearing.  _I never got the impression that her family was that wealthy_ , he thought. Then, when he got a closer look at the necklace, he amended his conclusion,  _No, that's all magical in origin — and from an old, wealthy family, too, I suspect. Where could it have come from?_

Viktor presented her with her own corsage and attached it to her wrist before offering his arm for her to take, noting the lingering look she seemed to give Jasmine, who remained at her own date's side. He'd been wondering about their relationship. He'd heard from conversations around the castle that the two were close friends who had been on some vaguely-described adventures over the past three years.  _Sometimes, they seem to be closer than any other two simple friends I've ever known. Another mystery about Jasmine Potter, I suppose._

"Attention, everyone," came Professor McGonagall's brusque voice over the din of chattering students. "If you're a champion or a champion's date, come wait over here at the side with me. Everyone else, please make your way into the Great Hall and find a seat at a table." The volume of the chattering went down a little, but not much else happened.

"We cannot get started until all of you are inside and seated," McGonagall added more loudly, "so get moving!" That got people's attention, and the crowd started flowing out of the Entrance Hall and into the Great Hall. Soon the area was clear, with just the champions, their dates, and a few adults left behind.

"Champions," McGonagall stated as she approached their group, "once the others are seated it will be time for you to enter. Let's see... Miss Delacour, you will enter first with Mr. Davies, followed by Mr. Krum and Miss Granger, followed then by Mr. Diggory with Miss Chang, and finally Miss Potter with Mr. Longbottom. When you are announced to the guests, you are to enter the hall and make your way up to the table reserved for champions, tournament officials, and VIPs. After dinner is finished, the eight of you will go to the dance floor, where you will open the ball with a waltz."

Professor McGonagall looked at each of the students in front of her to ensure that they all understood her instructions so far. "Once that opening waltz is completed, the evening is your own. You'll have no more official duties — aside, of course, from upholding the honor of your schools by maintaining proper standards of behavior and decorum. Am I understood?"

All the champions and their dates voiced their agreement before the transfiguration professor finished up by saying, "Very well, I'll go into the Great Hall now to make sure that everyone is settled there. Listen so you don't miss me calling your names." McGonagall then turned and went through the doors into the hall, leaving the students alone for a few minutes.

Jasmine was pleased to note that even the older students looked a bit nervous — except for Roger Davies, who seemed a bit too...  _focused_ on Fleur to be thinking of anything else. Jasmine wondered if he was starting to feel the effects of Fleur's allure. Now that she knew about it, she was sure she could detect the allure in the air when Fleur was close, but she hadn't had any problems with being influenced by it.  _I wonder if my being able to perceive her allure is due to my preference for girls_ , Jasmine asked herself,  _or if it's normal for girls to be able to sense it?_

At any rate, their obvious apprehension made her feel a bit less immature for being nervous herself. Guessing that everyone was probably too on edge to speak, Jasmine decided it was up to her to break the ice and chose a topic she hoped they could all relate to — and one that would make them all feel like they were on the same side. "Does anyone else find it odd that they didn't bother to announce this event until two weeks before it was to be held — and that they decided to hold it on Christmas Day, of all dates? How many students had intended to spend the holidays with family? They couldn't have done a better job if they were  _trying_  to be deliberately inconsiderate and rude."

The others were shocked at the bluntness coming from the youngest champion, and even Fleur Delacour gave an unladylike snort. Only Neville and Hermione were unfazed, the latter even rolling her eyes, because they were getting used to Jasmine's refusal to put a filter on her mouth when she was annoyed. She had never been good at expressing emotions, but ever since she and Hermione had started dating, she had become bolder at expressing her opinions — usually when she was feeling stronger emotions like anger.

This time her bluntness worked out because everyone there was in agreement. Viktor and Fleur hadn't made plans because of the inconvenience of travel, but both said that they would usually have important family gatherings on this day and would have been quite upset if they had had to cancel their plans at the last minute. Cedric Diggory, Cho Chang, and Roger Davies did originally have plans to go home, but fortunately their plans had been easy to change.

All, though, knew of other students who hadn't had it so easy. Some chose to deal with the hardship and stay because they figured the Yule Ball was a unique opportunity. Others gave up the chance to attend, choosing instead to honor family commitments. None of them expected any complaints they might make to be taken seriously.

Before the conversation could proceed any further, they heard Professor McGonagall announce the first couple, "Beauxbatons Champion Fleur Delacour, who is escorted by Hogwarts student Roger Davies."

As the two departed, Jasmine found herself looking around at the remaining couples and at Cho Chang in particular. She wore striking silver dress robes with an unusual Asian design, and Jasmine had to admit that they suited her. As she admired the dress, she didn't notice that Hermione's eyes had narrowed at how long Jasmine spent looking at Cedric's date. Suddenly they heard, "Durmstrang Champion Viktor Krum, who is escorting Hogwarts student Hermione Granger," and when Jasmine looked over at her girlfriend, all she saw was the bright smile that appeared on Hermione's face.

A few moments after they left came the next announcement, "Hogwarts Champion Cedric Diggory, who is escorting Hogwarts student Cho Chang." Jasmine felt bad that Cedric had to share the spotlight as Hogwarts Champion with her. As much as she was suffering from this, he was being harmed as well.  _Hufflepuff rarely enough gets this kind of positive attention — they don't deserve to have it diverted to me_ , she thought, and not for the first time.

After a few more moments, and lots of nervous fidgeting from Jasmine, she heard the announcement for her: "Hogwarts' second Champion Jasmine Potter, who is escorted by Hogwarts student Neville Longbottom."

Looking at Neville, who seemed even more nervous than her, she said, "Chin up, Nev. Here we go!"

Walking into the Great Hall was like nothing Jasmine had ever experienced. One moment she was outside the doors, the next moment she had passed through them and into a veritable wall of sound, lights, smells, and other sensations. There was so much going on that she felt like she was going into sensory overload. It was only by sheer willpower that she was able to keep her feet moving forward. Neville, whose arm she was holding ever more tightly, didn't seem to be handling the experience any better.

By the end she was starting to feel a little dizzy from all the sensations, but finally they made it to the champions' table. Being the last couple there, they didn't have any choice about where to sit, which meant that Jasmine would be forced to endure the presence of Ludo Bagman on her right while Neville was stuck with Barty Crouch on his left. Neither Jasmine nor Neville expected scintillating dinner conversation from these two and would be trying to forget that part of the night as soon as possible.

Hopefully the rest of the ball would be a little more exciting...


	14. Ballroom Blitz: Yule Ball, Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Recommendation: This chapter's recommended fic is "Harry Potter and the Afterlife, Inc." by dunuelos. Not only is it one of the better responses to Reptilia28's challenge, but it was actually completed!

**Friday, December 25, 1994, Dancing.**

After the Dinner-Which-Must-Not-Be-Remembered, Jasmine joined the other champions and their dates as they made their way on to the dance floor. This was the part of the evening that she thought she would be most nervous about, but as she got into position with Neville, she realized that she was far calmer than she had anticipated. It was then that she understood how much the practicing and preparation had helped her.

She had already danced numerous times with Neville, and many different kinds of dances, too. Sure, this time she was doing it in front of quite a few people who didn't like her and would have been happy to see her fail, but they didn't matter. All that mattered were her friends — her surrogate family — some of whom were already out on the dance floor with her. Smiling broadly to Neville, she said with more confidence than she expected to feel, "We'll be fine, Nev. We've done this so much already that we could do it with our eyes closed if we wanted."

"Easy for you to say — you don't have to lead," Neville said under his breath. Still, the Longbottom heir stood up a little straighter, gripped his date a bit more firmly, and as the music began he moved confidently into the dance steps he'd come to know so well.

They'd had some trouble when first practicing together because Jasmine had been reluctant to let him lead her around. It wasn't that she didn't trust him; it was just that she preferred to be in control of where she was going. Having to move backwards based upon the directions of someone else simply didn't sit well with her, no matter who it was doing the leading.

They'd gotten over that, of course, and while they were by no means experts, they were certainly competent. Jasmine found that she actually enjoyed the dancing, at least a little bit. There was plenty of space between the couples, so she didn't have the impression that she was hemmed in by masses of students. Feeling like she was surrounded bothered her — it was a legacy from many days in her past when she was ruthlessly hunted for sport by her cousin and his gang.

Most of the time she could manage her reactions when surrounded, like when maneuvering in the busy corridors of Hogwarts, yet she was in control of her own movements then — a crowded dance floor was a different matter. And while the practice sessions had hardly been teeming with other couples, Jasmine had felt a sense of dread come over her when thinking about what the real ball would be like.

When it became obvious during the dance practices that she was nervous about something she didn't want to talk about, Hermione had to browbeat her into explaining her fears and then browbeat her some more into telling Neville. She had been right, of course, but that didn't make Jasmine any happier about it at the time.

And before she knew it, the opening waltz was over. She had been so lost in her own thoughts that she had hardly noticed the time passing. Apparently her dancing had gotten good enough that her body was able to carry on with the task without her mind needing to be fully present.

"Back with us, then, are you?" Neville asked with an amused glint in his eyes.

Smiling for all the people now applauding the champions and their opening dance, she answered, "Sorry, got distracted thinking about various… issues. Did I miss anything?"

"You mean, aside from my magnificent dancing skills? No, nothing of great importance," Neville replied cheerfully. Jasmine was pleased to see that he'd grown enough in confidence to talk back to her like that. It was one of the things she had appreciated about Ron — he was never afraid to speak his mind.

Grinning back, she said, "Shall we continue?"

"Indeed we shall, m'lady," he responded. They took their positions while the dance floor filled with students, and they started moving with the music once it resumed. It was certainly more difficult to dance in a crowd — Jasmine could see it in Neville's eyes. Not only was he responsible for keeping them from crashing into other couples, but since her revelation of her fears he seemed to take it upon himself to also keep a second eye out for potential trouble and a third eye on Jasmine herself to make sure she was OK. By Jasmine's count, that was at least one eye more than Neville had been born with.

Pushing down the anxiety that had been slowly building, she tried to smile warmly. "Thanks, Neville. I appreciate what you're doing for me. For us… everything that you're doing."

A little startled by the sudden thanks, Neville needed a moment to focus his attention on her words. "Uh, sure. Yeah, you're welcome. You two can always count on me. What brought that on all of a sudden, though?"

"I already knew that what you were doing for us wasn't easy," Jasmine explained, "but a moment ago I could see how much active work was being required from you right now. We should sit the next one out so you can rest." Neville wasn't that tired or stressed, but he didn't decline the offer. They both knew that they'd be stopping primarily for her, not for him.

* * *

Walking off of the dance floor, they noticed Viktor and Hermione had already appropriated a table, so they decided to join the couple. "You wanted to take a break, too? It was getting too crowded and hot for us," Hermione stated as soon as they arrived. "At least with Viktor being taller than most, he was able to prevent us from bumping into too many others."

"Neville was doing a great job, too," Jasmine added with a smile. "But you're right, it's almost oppressive out there. Hopefully it will clear out a bit after a few more songs."

"Is that Ron sitting over there alone?" Neville asked. Hermione and Jasmine had to crane their necks to see where he was pointing, but both agreed that it was Ron. "I wonder why he's alone — last I saw, he was rushing off to meet his date."

Conversation turned to general observations about the decor and food of the ball, and the two couples were soon joined by Ginny and Dean. "Tired? Or did the crowd get to be too much for you?" asked Hermione.

"A bit of both, frankly," Dean answered. "Ginny was more annoyed by the crowd than I was, but I think it's because she dances better and knows more about what we  **would**  be doing if we had more space. Me, I don't know enough to be annoyed." This was all said with a grin, showing that the Gryffindor boy wasn't bothered that his date knew more about dancing than he did and that he was having a good time anyway.

"Say, Gin, is that Ron over there alone?" Neville asked the new arrival. "We were wondering about that a few minutes ago because we saw him leaving Gryffindor tower to meet his date, but so far we haven't seen anyone with him."

Standing up to get a better look, she saw that it was indeed her brother and immediately started searching around for his date. After looking for a minute without any luck, she turned to face the dance floor and stopped, then slowly sat down. "Oh, dear," she said.

"Vat's wrong?" Viktor asked.

"Well," Ginny answered, "I found his date." Trying to point without being too obvious about it, she directed their attention to a waifish blonde girl in a strange silvery dress that was decorated with numerous flowers. She was dancing, though it wasn't a dance any of them recognized. It certainly wasn't the formal sort of dance one would normally do with the music being played. She was moving her arms and legs in a vaguely stylized fashion, as if she were dancing to some music or rhythm that only she could hear.

"Is… is she alright?" Hermione asked, not sure what she should say about the sight in front of her. It seemed that other students were equally bewildered, judging by their attempts to keep some distance between her and themselves out on the dance floor.

Ginny sighed and tried to explain. "That's Luna Lovegood, a Ravenclaw in my year. She lives near my family in Ottery St. Catchpole, so we've known each other since we were both little. It probably won't come as much of a surprise that many people refer to her as "Looney" Lovegood. Luna is… different. Unique. Eccentric. All those words fit, but they don't fully describe her, either."

Taking a sip of her drink while trying to figure out how to continue, Ginny finally said, "I'd say that you have to experience her to understand, but I've been experiencing her for years and I  **still**  don't understand. I just accept her as she is because she's incredibly sweet and nice. You'll never find a more gentle soul, but not everyone can deal with her oddities. Unfortunately, I think she's being bullied by others in Ravenclaw, but I don't have any proof, and she doesn't want to get them in trouble. Or perhaps I should say, she doesn't want to make trouble and risk the bullying getting worse."

Only Hermione noticed the tightening in Jasmine's face, a sure sign there'd be hell to pay if a sweet, gentle girl was being bullied. Hermione could only hope that she'd be able to channel Jasmine's reaction into a form that didn't produce significant injuries or property damage. Trying to at least distract Jasmine for the moment, she asked, "Do you have any idea why she is… well, this way?"

Her expression growing sad, Ginny answered, "Luna was always a little strange, and I think it was because her parents were a bit odd themselves. Then, sometime around when I was eight or nine, Luna's mother was killed. It was some sort of accident while she was developing a new spell, I think. I never knew all the details, but I did find out a couple of years later that Luna was there. She watched her mother die. After that, she grew more and more bizarre."

Bringing the conversation back to its starting point, Neville asked, "So, what's up with Ron being alone? Do you think he's annoyed that his date is eccentric?"

Frowning, Ginny said, "I'm not sure. It's not like his date was a surprise — he knew Luna from before and knew he'd be escorting her. I even warned him in advance, just in case he didn't remember her well enough to understand how odd she can be. Maybe he didn't listen, as is often the case." With that, she quickly downed her drink and said, "Sorry, Dean, but I'm going to need a few minutes with my dear brother. Granted, they aren't an actual couple, and I set this up both so that she would be able to come and so that he wouldn't be pathetically dateless, but that doesn't mean that he's allowed to  **completely**  ignore her. I'll be back as soon as I can."

"Not a problem, Ginny," Dean said. "I share a dorm with him, remember? I know what he's like."

Giving him a smile that was a bit more of a grimace, Ginny turned and stalked over to where her brother was sitting. He didn't see her approach, otherwise he'd have probably gotten up and made a break for it. Instead, she was able to trap him at the table, where she proceeded to give him a bollocking worthy of their mother.

Noticing that the crowd on the dance floor had thinned a bit, Viktor stood and with a bow to Jasmine asked, "Vould you care to dance?"

* * *

Out on the dance floor, Viktor began blinking rapidly as they were assaulted by the sudden flashing of cameras. "I never get used to camera flashes," he groused. "Should have expected they vould vant many pictures of us dancing together, but I didn't expect them to get to this part of the dance floor so qvickly."

"True enough," Jasmine said ruefully. "I can see the headlines now: The Girl Who Lived Swept Off Her Feet by Bulgarian Bon Bon."

Viktor almost choked in horror. "Bulgarian Bon Bon? Vhere do you get such things?"

"Oh, it's not my invention, I'm sorry to say," Jasmine answered. "I heard it as part of some rumor about you. Girls' Network, you know. I may still be ostracized by a lot of the students in this school, but I continue to pick up things."

Snorting in annoyance, Viktor said, "Girls' Network, huh. Despite my best efforts, that is one group I cannot eavesdrop on. Even with my mask, they talk in whispers and giggle if I get too close."

"Yeah, well, don't get your hopes up of sneaking into that information stream," Jasmine said with a smirk. "You'd look awful in a wig and skirt." The shock of that image caused Viktor to miss a step in his dancing, which gave Jasmine no small amount of amusement. Just because she didn't want to be at the Yule Ball didn't mean that she wasn't going to try to have a little fun where she could.

When the next dance number started, they were greeted by Neville and Cho Chang, who had apparently joined them on the dance floor. Viktor and Neville bowed to each other before switching partners, and then the two couples began to spin off in different directions. As she was dancing by with Cedric, Hermione thought she saw Jasmine's eyes once again linger on Cho for a bit longer than seemed appropriate.

"When we turn in that direction again," Neville said to Jasmine once they got started, "look back over at the table we were sitting at."

Jasmine did as he said and was surprised to see what looked like Luna Lovegood sitting there, talking with Dean. "Is that...?"

"Yep," Neville said. "We saw Dean wave Luna over when she walked off the dance floor. We thought it might be to distract her from whatever Ginny is saying or doing to Ron. It's a nice gesture, especially if her oddness makes her as difficult to deal with as Ginny said."

Jasmine frowned when she was reminded about that particular issue. "I hate the idea that a sweet, gentle girl might be being bullied by others because she's different. And in Ravenclaw, no less! I wouldn't be so surprised if it were Slytherin — that house does prize a certain amount of ruthlessness as part of promoting ambition. Ravenclaw, though, is supposed to be about intelligence, wit, academics, and scholarship. At worst they should only have an excessive focus on books and studying, not cliquishness and bullying!"

"Well," Neville tried to answer while still doing his duty to keep an eye on things, "I suppose that just because you're in Ravenclaw doesn't mean you're immune from other human flaws. I take it you have plans? Maybe plans that involve bloody retribution or something along those lines?" There had been a time when Neville thought that Jasmine was a fairly reserved, sweet girl. He had been disabused of such notions after learning about what she'd endured in her life — and he was still convinced that he hadn't heard everything. On top of that was the way she had been growing more brash ever since she and Hermione had gotten together; he had no idea what to make of that.

Jasmine snorted at the question. "Not exactly, though I'm not ruling it out, either. First, I'd like to get to know her — I want to find out if she really is being bullied. From what Ginny said, that might be hard. I also want her to know that she can come to me for help or safety. I hope I'll be able to include Hermione, Ginny, and you in that commitment?" Neville nodded vigorously at that. "Then, if there are any bullies, we do something to them."

* * *

Later, all three couples found themselves sitting again at the same table. Ron and Luna were out on the floor dancing, and while Ron didn't look too happy, Luna looked absolutely ecstatic. Ginny had explained the facts of life to Ron — in particular, the fact that his life depended on doing the proper thing for the girl he had escorted to the ball and actually dancing with her, even if only a few times. She must have done an effective job at channeling Molly Weasley because he had fetched Luna from Dean's company before the next dance had even started, and they hadn't sat back down since.

Other than having to deal with minor nuisances like Ron and photographers, all six students had had a good time at the ball so far — a better time than most of them had expected, in fact.

Unfortunately, a much larger and more persistent nuisance picked that moment to make himself known.

"Hey, Potter, I should have known that the only date you could manage to get was a pathetic squib. I guess that's why you didn't need to pay — when you're with a squib, even a halfblood like you manages to be magically dominant."

Malfoy seemed to think that his comments were pretty witty, and the chuckles from his sycophants — Crabbe, Goyle, and Parkinson — helped reinforce that image he had of himself. Jasmine, though, saw an opportunity to use some of what Neville had been teaching the group every evening. Even better, she could do so in a way that would highlight how crass Malfoy tended to behave.

"Why, Mr. Malfoy, I'm frankly surprised at you," Jasmine drawled. Pleased to see the look of confusion on his face, she continued, "It sounded for all the world like you might have been insulting Neville Longbottom, heir to the Most Ancient and Noble House of Longbottom. I'd like to point out that his family is recorded as having practiced magic in Britain  **centuries**  before the Malfoys crossed the channel as peasants imported by Norman invaders." If the red that was suffusing Malfoy's face was any indication, he knew she was right and was incensed that she had the gall to say any of it aloud.

"In fact, if I'm not mistaken," Jasmine turned to Neville at this point as if to get confirmation, "the Longbottom family can be traced back to Vikings who settled in northern England in the early 9th century." Neville nodded casually.

Turning back to Malfoy and his cronies, she continued, "That was quite a long time before the French peasants decided to stick their overly large noses into our business in England. So you see, you're in no position to be insulting the magic or heritage of a family far older and nobler than your own will ever be.  **If**  that was what you were doing — which I'm sure you weren't, given the ramifications to your family honor and fortunes from issuing such insults. Am I correct, Mr. Malfoy?"

The red in Malfoy's face suddenly drained to a stark white as his brain caught up to his mouth, and he realized that there were indeed potential consequences to insults like those he'd just made.  _Funny how he never seems to think about the consequences of his actions_ , Jasmine thought sourly.

"N-no, Miss Potter. Certainly not," he stammered.

"Very good. I'm glad to hear that. Run along now, go play with your little friends. Your presence is no longer required," Jasmine said to dismiss him, just before turning her back and completely ignoring him. Shaking a little in anger at being treated as if he didn't matter, Malfoy stormed off with his minions trailing along behind. Off to the side, she thought she could see Mad-Eye Moody grinning.

"Wow, Jasmine, where'd all that come from?" asked Dean.

"Oh, it's all thanks to the lessons I've been getting from Professor Longbottom here," Jasmine said with a warm smile at Neville.

Neville blushed a little at the praise. "Thanks, Jasmine. I couldn't put him in his place without looking worse. Something like that is best coming from someone like you — someone whose family has a similar status." Turning to Dean, he explained, "Defending your family by pointing out how old and titled it is may be a legitimate response to insults, but it's also regarded as incredibly crass. It's like a person who goes around bragging about their Quidditch successes all the time — their words may be true, but that's not the sort of person you want to spend time with, right?"

Dean nodded in understanding, so Neville continued, "But someone  **else**  can defend you by pointing out how strong you are or how old your family is. That's not socially inappropriate, at least if done properly. Also, the more significant the family of the person who does so, the better it is, because it doesn't look like they are trying to benefit by sucking up to you. Hermione could defend me, for example, but some could interpret that as her trying to get into my good graces. Viktor wouldn't be seen that way, however, regardless of his family background because he's so famous in his own right."

"That all makes sense," Dean said slowly as he thought about it, "but it also sounds awfully complicated."

"You're right, it is," Hermione said as she joined the conversation. "Even the strangest customs or traditions among British magical purebloods make at least some sense once they are explained in context, but few are what I'd call obvious. That means you need instruction in them to even begin to fit in."

"It's a good vay of keeping outsiders excluded," Viktor said. "People who aren't raised in the culture never feel totally at home, and those who try to stay vill always be recognizable. It's simply a more subtle and deeply embedded expression of the overt bigotry you see from children like Malfoy. Most probably don't even realize vat is happening."

The previous happiness at chasing Malfoy away had now been replaced by a somber mood. Everyone was seeing how difficult it would be to ever make magical Britain more open to groups like muggleborn when the very fabric of its customs and traditions served to keep them out.

"It's starting to get a bit stuffy in here," Jasmine finally said. "I'd like to take a walk outside. Anyone want to join me?"

* * *

Ginny and Dean chose to stay inside and go back to dancing, so only two couples went out to stroll through the enchanted garden. Jasmine started out walking beside Neville, the two talking further about wizarding culture, whereas Hermione and Viktor chatted in low voices about something Jasmine couldn't quite hear. Somehow, though, the girls ended up walking together with Neville between them and Viktor. If Viktor thought it was in any way odd, he didn't say anything, though Neville did seem to be doing a good job keeping him distracted by talking about Hogwarts.

During a lull in their conversations, heated voices were heard from a nearby path. They couldn't make out the exact words because of how the plants muffled the sound, but Viktor recognized one of the speakers. "That is my headmaster, Karkaroff. Who vould he be arguing vith?" No one had any answer to that, so they quietly made their way around a corner to witness a heated exchange between him and Professor Snape.

Whatever the subject was, neither looked happy, but Karkaroff looked far more upset and agitated. Finally he stormed off in the direction of the Durmstrang ship while Snape walked away from them towards the castle. The conflict on Viktor's face was clear to everyone.

Hermione spoke up first. "Viktor, I take it you want to follow him to make sure he's okay?"

Sighing, Viktor said regretfully, "Ja. I don't like him much, but I do have obligations to him as my headmaster. I cannot easily ignore something like this."

"Go ahead, then," Hermione responded. "We'll be fine. I know it's a bit early to end the evening, but this is important too."

"Don't worry," Neville added, "I'll see that they both get back into the castle safely."

"Thank you," Viktor said with relief evident in his voice. Turning to Hermione, he took her hand and bowed to kiss it. "I had a delightful evening dancing and talking with several new friends. Thank you, Miss Granger, for accompanying me. I hope we can do this again some time."

With a curtsey, Hermione responded, "I had a lovely time dancing and talking with you Viktor. I know we all enjoyed your company, in fact, and I hope we'll all be able to continue spending time together. Thank you for inviting me."

After a click of his heels and another short bow to the others, Viktor quickly made his way in the direction that Karkaroff left. Turning towards her girlfriend, Jasmine said impishly, "I'm sorry your date had to leave early, but I can think of some benefits to the situation." Hermione smiled back and moved a bit closer.

"Uh, I hate to interrupt," Neville broke in, "but this is a bit public. Why don't you go to that dark corner over there, and I'll stand here as a lookout."

Jasmine beamed in appreciation at Neville while Hermione simply grabbed her hand and pulled her over to the darkened corner of the garden path. They barely had time to stop and face each other when once again, raised voices came to them from a nearby path. "Really?" asked Jasmine in a disappointed tone. "Are we going to do this all night?"

Before anyone could answer, they saw Madam Maxime of Beauxbatons storm by, clearly upset about something. "We should leave," Hermione said, "before Dumbledore comes out to have a tantrum, too."

All three Gryffindors made their way back into the castle, though as none cared to continue dancing, they didn't bother returning to the ball. Jasmine and Hermione walked next to each other, occasionally brushing hands and arms, while Neville accompanied them a discreet distance away. It wasn't much privacy, but he wanted them to have whatever he could offer.

* * *

None of them were aware of the pair of blue eyes watching them walk up the stairs. Stepping out of the shadows in a corner in the Entrance Hall, Fleur Delacour considered what she was witnessing. She had noticed the way they walked together, and how they sat next to each other when taking breaks from dancing. During dinner, they kept looking at each other more than at their dates.

None of this needed any explanation beyond their friendship. Mere friendship, however, would not explain the powerful magical connection she could sense between them. Most of the time, she could only liken it to a kind of music, and the volume seemed to be growing. The melody also seemed to be growing more complex.

When she was closer to them, like at the dinner tonight, she felt like there was more than music going on — more than melody and rhythm. What she felt was power: enough power that at times she was sure she could almost see it arcing between the two witches. No one else noticed anything, though, so unless her senses were playing tricks on her, it had to be something that only veela could detect.

It wasn't much, but Fleur felt like she now had enough that she could write to her family in France. Hopefully her maman and grandmere would understand what was going on and could advise her. Before, she only wanted to write so they could help her satisfy her curiosity. Now, though, she was concerned: she could feel and see the power being exuded by those two witches, even though no one else seemed able to. She wasn't sure what it meant, but that much power could be dangerous — especially since it looked like it was growing, too.

 _Yes_ , she thought,  _I'll have to send out a letter first thing in the morning._

* * *

Far away, in a town called Little Hangleton, a short, dumpy man sat morosely in an old, dilapidated manor house.  _I used to believe that there was nothing worse than spending Christmas alone_ , he thought.  _Now I know better._

Peter Pettigrew had spent many Christmases alone. Many of those times he'd felt sorry for himself, but now he looked back on those days with wistful nostalgia. They may not have been his best days, but they were far better than what he was enduring now. Worse yet, he had no one to blame for his current situation but himself.

"Wormtail," came the screeching from that… that…  _thing_  in the other room. "Wormtail, come milk Nag…  **AAARRRGGGHHHH!** "

The short, dumpy man slowly rose to his feet, wondering for the umpteenth time how long he'd have the strength to endure this. That thing he served had been experiencing more and more of these episodes of pain, followed by weakness, over the past couple of weeks. Of course, he was always the one punished for it.

"Happy Christmas to me..." he muttered to himself as he trudged into the other room to do his master's bidding.

_"_ _**Crucio!** _ _"_


	15. Master and Servant

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: To the best of my knowledge, muggledad is the first and only fanfic writer I've seen who has Voldemort use the royal "We," which I am doing as well. I agree with muggledad that that sounds like something Voldemort would do.
> 
> Recommendation: This chapter's recommended fic is "He's Mine" by Romantic Silence. It's a curious and slightly darkish story in which Hermione is pleased that she's the only one who believes in Harry after he's forced to participate in the Triwizard Tournament. It's short and quick to read.

 

**Chapter 15 - Master and Servant**

**Saturday, December 26, 1994 - Boxing Day, Early Afternoon.**

Jasmine and Hermione had left the Yule ball before it ended at midnight, but they had stayed up late anyway, talking and cuddling in Hermione's bed. They hadn't wanted the night to end, but they had no easy options for spending time together as a couple, and this had been all they could come up with.

Thus it was a bleary-eyed Jasmine and Hermione who made their way down to the Great Hall for lunch, which for them was effectively breakfast, in the hope that some food would help wake them up. They saw many students who were in a similar state, and more than a few who seemed to be worse. Neville and Ginny were nowhere in sight. Jasmine assumed that she and her girlfriend would end up in the library for studying once lunch was done, but instead she was dragged all the way back up to the seventh floor and into their training room.

Once there, and after the map was checked, Hermione silenced and sealed the door, pushed Jasmine into a chair, took a chair opposite for herself, and regarded Jasmine with a stern expression. "Right," she started, "you promised me an explanation for how you learned about and accessed your vaults. The fact that you didn't tell me before — not even a quick version — means that it's complex, it's dangerous, I won't like it, or all of the above. So we're not leaving here until I get the full story. Now give."

Jasmine groaned inwardly. She didn't dare let it show, however, lest it give the tenacious witch across from her even more ammunition.  _I knew this conversation was coming_ , she thought to herself,  _I_ _ **knew**_   _it. I should have prepared myself already — I just didn't think it would come so quickly. First thing the day after! Talk about pushy..._

Sighing, Jasmine began, "You're right that you're not going to be happy.  **But** ," she added, raising her finger to silence Hermione before she could interject, "I'm going to ask you to hear me out first, just like you asked me when you wanted Viktor to practice dancing with us. I was calm, remember? And that turned out alright in the end. Do you think you can do the same?"

"Well, when you put it that way..." Hermione grumbled. At Jasmine's look, she added, "Fine, fine — I'll be good. What is it?"

"Thank you. My first confession," Jasmine began, "is that I forgot to get you a gift until the last minute. In fact, I forgot to get any gifts at all until the last minute. In my defense, I'll just point out that I've had a lot on my mind for the past month or so..."

Hermione snorted in amusement at the understatement. Taking that as encouragement, Jasmine continued, "Then I got lucky and met Dobby in our common room. He's been working at Hogwarts and told me he was very happy. However, I also learned that not everything had been going well for him. And it turns out I was partly to blame."

Shocked, Hermione asked, "What's wrong? What did you do?"

"Well, the problem was that I freed Dobby at the end of second year. That act of generosity on my part could have killed him."

"What?" Hermione asked in a louder voice. "How?"

"According to Dobby, house elves get magic from the family they are bonded to. House elves are magical creatures and need magic to survive, but they have little of their own. So without a bond, a house elf will slowly deteriorate mentally and physically, eventually dying. That's why my freeing Dobby could have killed him."

Hermione was horrified. "Oh, no — it's not just Dobby, is it, but all the house elves that I've been trying to free? I could have killed them!" She jumped up and started pacing in her agitation. "Have any died yet, do you know? Can the effects be reversed? Can I donate my own magic? What do we do, Jasmine?"

Pleased that this was going better than she had feared, but worried because Hermione was being a bit too passionate now, Jasmine grabbed her fellow Gryffindor and firmly put her back into her chair. "Don't panic, Hermione. You haven't done nearly as much damage as you think. Probably none at all, in fact, except to your reputation. The Hogwarts house elves are safe, but they aren't happy with you. We'll get to that later."

Relieved, Hermione said, "OK, fine. So what about Dobby? Why is he still alive? I assume that he found somebody to bond with, but that can't be the whole story, or else you wouldn't be making a big deal about this."

Smiling at Hermione's powers of deduction, Jasmine went on, "Exactly. Yes, he bonded, but not completely. He created a partial bond with someone — just enough to keep from dying, but not enough to help him the way he needed. He didn't explain it to me in detail, but the impression I got was that he's been living with something like a serious, chronic illness for more than a year now. It's been hard on him, I could tell; yet despite that, when we met he was as cheerful as ever."

"Oh, my." Hermione exclaimed, "But who would he have created a partial bond with? Who would have been unable to... you! Did he partially bond with you?"

"Right again," Jasmine answered. "Once I learned all this, I basically had two choices: cut the partial bond that was keeping him alive and hope that he could find another solution in time, or complete the bond so he could be made healthy and whole once again. Leaving him with a partial bond would have been cruel, so I didn't even consider that."

Thus far, Hermione's reactions had been pretty much what Jasmine had hoped for: instead of blurting out, "I bonded Dobby to me," which was sure to result in an explosion, she started off with "unbonded elves die," which was sure to elicit sympathy. It might be a bit manipulative, but it was still the truth. If presenting the truth in a favorable order helped keep Hermione from getting unnecessarily upset, Jasmine was all for it.

And Hermione was definitely looking conflicted. "Are you sure that bonding with a family is the only way for house elves to have enough magic to survive?" she asked.

"Well," Jasmine answered, "it seems there is one alternative, and that's to bond with an institution like Hogwarts or the Ministry of Magic. There's enough magic in such places to give them what they need. They're not always as happy that way because most prefer being part of a family rather than an impersonal organization, but they can survive."

Hermione had to think about that, and she spent a minute going through all the possibilities and permutations. In the end, she sagged in her chair in defeat. "You bonded Dobby to yourself, didn't you?" It was more a statement than a question.

"Yep," Jasmine answered, popping the P. "Was I wrong?"

Grudgingly, Hermione conceded, "No. And you were right — I'm not happy. It's not the ideal outcome, but I guess that it may have been the best decision."

Now it was Jasmine's turn to sag in her chair, in relief this time. "Good, I was worried about that. This is exactly the issue where you've reacted most rashly. Your passion about wanting to free the elves is great, but you probably should have done more research before acting." Jasmine paused for a moment to consider before continuing. "If it'll make you feel any better, I think Dobby may be one who prefers a personal connection. When he explained all this to me, he started acting kind of... shifty, like he was angling for something. I didn't understand it at the time, but I think maybe he was hoping I'd ask him to become my elf. I mean, he could have bonded with Hogwarts and been at full strength for the last several months, yet he chose to maintain a partial bond with me instead. I know this isn't what  _you_  wanted for him, but I think it's what  _he_  wanted for himself."

Jasmine glanced over at her girlfriend, who didn't say anything. The bushy-haired witch still looked sullen, but maybe now she was...  _thoughtfully_  sullen. Jasmine shook her head and sighed. "Anyway, who knew that house elves were magical parasites, like tapeworms?"

Hermione was horrified. "You take that back! They are not tapeworms!"

"What?" Jasmine asked, surprised by Hermione's sudden anger. "They sound like parasites..."

"No!" Hermione said forcefully. "Parasites only take, but apparently house elves give back in exchange for what they take. They're clearly symbiotic creatures, not parasites. Honestly!"

"OK, OK, sorry," Jasmine mumbled, feeling thoroughly chastened.

Hermione scowled a bit, then moved on and asked, "So what about my reputation with the house elves? You mentioned something about that?"

"Oh, right," Jasmine said. "Well, they don't like you much. Even though you couldn't free them, since you aren't their master, they still recognized that you were trying to free them. From their perspective, that's like someone trying to kill them." Hermione winced at that. "So they all but abandoned the Gryffindor Tower to Dobby. He's been doing all the work and taking all your hats. He loves them. In fact, when we met that morning I described, he was wearing a dozen or so of them."

Jasmine paused and suddenly became very interested in picking at a mark on the table, prompting Hermione to ask, "What else? All that is bad enough, but what else is there that could make you that uncomfortable?"

"Uh... they've been calling you names," Jasmine said, refusing to look at the other witch.

"So?" Hermione said. Then, after a moment, added, "Wait, what sort of names?"

"According to Dobby, there are two that have become common," Jasmine said. "She-Who-Knits and The Dark Seamstress."

Hermione let her head hit the table with a resounding thump. "Yeah, they really don't like you much," Jasmine said.

After giving Hermione a few moments to process that, Jasmine continued, "I have good news and bad news. Let's start with the good news. I gave Dobby a bunch of rules to ensure that he's treated well. Things like pay, time off, he can ask to be released, that sort of thing. Oh, and he can't go beating himself up if he thinks he's done anything wrong. I hated watching him do that when he was a Malfoy elf. He knows that as his mistress, only I can set his punishments. We can go over the rules later to see if I missed anything."

Hermione looked directly at Jasmine at this point, crossed her arms, and raised one eyebrow.

"What?" the auburn-haired witch asked.

"Really?" Hermione drawled.

"What?"

Smirking, Hermione continued, "Mistress is in charge of punishments, is she? What have you been doing with that poor elf?"

Upon realizing the implications of her earlier words, Jasmine's eyes widened and her face flushed scarlet. Unable to articulate any complete words, she just spluttered while Hermione looked at her knowingly. Finally, she managed to get out, "Bloody hell, witch!"

"Language," Hermione chided with a smile. "And you're right, we will have to talk about that later. Now, what's the bad news?"

Once Jasmine could form coherent thoughts again, she asked, "Do you remember Winky?"

Hermione had to stop and think for a minute, then it hit her, "Barty Crouch's elf? The one he dismissed at the World Cup?"

"Yeah," Jasmine said. "She's here at Hogwarts, but she won't bond with the castle. She's one of those elves that wants a family. She can't accept working for an impersonal institution — like Dobby, she needs the emotional bond, not merely the magical bond. She's going downhill fast, getting drunk on butterbeer. She needs to bond with someone or she'll die."

Realization dawned on Hermione's face as she figured out what was going to be asked of her. "Oh, no. You can't possibly expect me to... why don't you do it?"

"Really?" Jasmine said, imitating Hermione's drawl from a minute before. "If it's so wrong for you to do it, why would it suddenly be OK for me to do it? Do you think I'm that horrible?"

"No," Hermione said, suddenly embarrassed. "I didn't mean to imply..."

"Yeah, well, you did," Jasmine said sternly, "But there are more important things to consider. First, I already have an elf bonded to me. Elves like work. They  _need_  work. I don't have enough work to give one elf, let alone two, but Dobby loves me so much that I think he'll be fine. Second, I know that you still want to improve the lives of elves, and while you can't do it the way you wanted — by just freeing them all — that doesn't mean that you won't figure out some other way in the future. However, I don't think your chances are good unless you understand elves first. What better way to understand them and their concerns than to be bonded to one?"

Hermione was taken aback by that argument. It seemed so counterintuitive at first — learn how to free slaves by owning a slave? But when she thought about it, she realized that Jasmine had a point. House elves were different enough from humans that she couldn't make too many assumptions about them. She would need to learn everything she could, and that meant going beyond books. At the very least she had to live with elves; unfortunately, being bonded to an elf would probably work best. If nothing else, she could take heart from knowing that Winky could be the first elf freed, if she could figure out how.

Finally, after debating back and forth with herself several times, she gave in. Partially. "Very well, I'll think about it. You're probably right, but I don't want to make a decision right away. And I'll want to talk to her first to see what  _she_  wants."

"That's fine," Jasmine replied, relieved. "Dobby!" With a loud pop, Dobby was suddenly standing there in front of the two witches.

"Missy Jazzy! Missy Hermy! What can Dobby do?"

At the unexpected exclamation of "Missy Hermy," Jasmine winced and Hermione frowned — she hated to have her name mangled for the creation of nicknames. Just as she was about to scold the eager house elf, however, the rest of what she'd just heard caught up with her.

Cocking an eyebrow at her green-eyed girlfriend, she said, "Missy Jazzy?"

Rolling her eyes, Jasmine responded, "It's not what I would choose, but it's better than what he wanted to use."

"And that was?"

Sighing, Jasmine turned to Dobby and said, "Why don't you tell her what you'd prefer to call me. Just this once, I'll let you use it."

Looking like he'd been given a lifetime supply of socks, Dobby jumped up and down and started singing, "She be The Great Mistress Jasmine Potter Ma'am, The Bestest Witch in Whole World!"

It started with just a snort, but Hermione's reaction quickly devolved into a full-on belly laugh. Once she regained control over herself, she returned Jasmine's glare with a smirk and said, "Right, then. If you can tolerate being called Missy Jazzy, I guess I can live with Missy Hermy." The smirk quickly turned into a glare of her own when she added, "But don't you ever even think about using that yourself. If you do, I'll make sure you end up looking and talking like a house elf  **all**  the time, not just with my name. Got it?"

Gulping, Jasmine nodded — Hermione didn't issue idle threats. Turning to Dobby, she said, "We'd like to talk to Winky. Do you think you can get her sobered up by..." she looked up at Hermione before finishing, "tomorrow evening, before dinner?" Hermione nodded her head in agreement.

"Oh, yes, Missy Jazzy. Dobby be having Winky sober by then."

"Good, thanks. We'll call for you when we're ready to talk to her. You can go back to your regular work now, Dobby. Thanks."

After Dobby popped away, Jasmine grabbed her girlfriend's hand and pulled her to her feet. She removed the spells from the door and said, "Let's go take a walk outside. We deserve a break after all that."

She couldn't see Hermione's smirk as she walked past her and out the door. "As you wish," she said as she left the room, "Mistress."

It took almost half a minute before Jasmine could get her brain unfrozen after that comment, and when she did she could see that Hermione was already running. Despite the large head start, she still nearly caught the bushy-haired witch by the time they got to the Entrance Hall.

* * *

**Saturday, December 26, 1994, Evening.**

"Wormtail!  **AAAAAAHHHHHH!** "

"Yes, master? What is it?"

"We are in pain, you idiot! We feel like We're burning all over. What do you think?  _ **Crucio!**_ _"_

"GAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

The Cruciatus Curse was more painful than any other dark curse, and those used by Lord Voldemort were among the worst that any wizard or witch had ever cast. This time, though, Peter Pettigrew thought that it might not have been as bad as previous sessions. Oh, the pain was incredible, but it was still a little less horrible than usual.  _Am I getting used to it?_  he wondered.  _Is that a_ _ **good**_   _thing?_

"Get up, Wormtail," shouted the deformed baby-thing that housed the tattered remnants of the soul of Tom Riddle. "Stop drooling all over yourself and do something about the pain We are feeling!"

"Ma-Master, I... I don't kn-know..."

_"_ _**Crucio!** _ _"_

* * *

**Saturday, December 26, 1994, Night.**

Once again ensconced in her bed late at night, Hermione set up to read and take notes on  _The Power of Love_. She had already learned so much from this book, and she knew that she still had several times that much more knowledge to go through, given how many pages were left. She felt charged up with both the excitement of learning new things and the thrill of knowing that what she was learning was deemed illicit by the magical government.

Many of her fellow Gryffindors assumed that her regular harping on about rules and obedience meant that she was somehow obsessive about the rules. Their conclusion was understandable, but missed the mark. She believed in order and justice. In the past, she had honestly thought that adherence to rules and authority were the best means for achieving those goals. Though, if she were going to be brutally honest, the attention and respect she got from adults because she was so diligent in following rules helped a lot, too.

Ever since joining the magical community, though, she had been learning that its rules, laws, and authority figures weren't all in support of order and justice. Many, in fact, opposed both, and she could not abide that. That's why she got a bit of pleasure from breaking those rules and laws or defying such authority figures. It was a thrill borne from pursuing a righteous cause against unjust oppressors — though often from the relative safety of her bed or some other protected place. And she had to admit, the fact that rigidly upholding the rules and obeying authority figures no longer got her the same admiration or respect also helped.

While trying to figure out which section of the book to read next, an interesting topic heading caught her eye:  _Equality and Inequality in Bonded Relationships_. Remembering what she had read a few days ago about the supposedly inherent, natural, and necessary inequality in all magical relationships — including especially marriage — Hermione was anxious to learn what Pureheart had to say on the subject.

_Let's see_ , Hermione thought as she began reading.  _Traditionalists bemoan attempts to impose equality in the magical bonds of marriage... insist that marriage is necessarily unequal... and they are often correct? That can't be right!_  Looking more closely, Hermione read that it was exceedingly rare for both the magic and will of any two people to be perfectly equal, so if they became a couple, the bonding of their magic would lead to one inevitably dominating — even if only a tiny bit.

Trying to force equality between their magics by suppressing the magic of one or pushing the magic of the other only ended up causing more difficulties. The effects of magical inequality on a relationship varied, but if the difference wasn't too great and the couple put in enough time and work, then the magical inequality wouldn't produce practical inequality — or at least not much. However, Pureheart observed that most wizards and witches tended to be lazy on that score, so few bothered.

"I wonder if that explains some things about power and politics in the magical world?" she murmured to herself, considering how the magically powerful tended to dominate in so many areas of magical life. Then she frowned and decided that she'd have to talk to Professor McGonagall about it tomorrow, because it didn't sound right to her.

More than a bit disappointed, Hermione pushed ahead.  _True equality is possible, but rare. Anecdotally it's always possible with soul-bonded couples, but soul bonds are so rare that these details are uncertain._

_That's interesting,_ Hermione thought.  _I wonder how that's supposed to work._  Continuing on to the next section, she read that there were some purported techniques that could be used to reduce the effects of magical inequality. Hermione perked up at that and started reading more closely so as not to miss anything.  _Some couples with whom I have regular contact have found success by employing love and pleasure in bedroom games where dominant and submissive roles are switched back and forth regularly..._

Hermione quickly slammed the book shut, her face growing hot in embarrassment.  _I'd heard somewhere about muggles doing things like that, but I never considered that witches and wizards might do it as well_ , she thought.  _And certainly not as something that might affect the magic in relationships!_   _I'm not sure I'm ready to even_ _ **read**_   _anything like that, let alone do it. I can't imagine_ _ **ever**_   _being ready to do something like that._

Hermione's imagination, though, was difficult to stop, and her mind quickly returned to something she herself said earlier that day:  _Mistress is in charge of punishments._

"Oh, bloody hell!" she cried aloud.

_As you wish._

"It was supposed to be a joke!"

_Mistress._

Sighing, she let her head drop to her chest and said softly to herself, "Ugh! Bloody hormones..."


	16. Hermione's Little Helper(s)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Recommendation: This chapter's recommended fic is "Lily Potter and the Worst Holiday" by bobsaqqara. For 16 years Lily Potter has been mourning the murder of her son, Harry. On Halloween, 6 strangers suddenly appear in the middle of Hogsmeade, each bearing a very familiar face.

**Chapter 16 - Hermione's Little Helper(s)**

**Sunday, December 27, 1994, Early Afternoon.**

While walking to meet with Professor McGonagall, Hermione decided to bring up an issue that had been tugging at her for a couple of days. "Jasmine," she said, "do you... do you like Cho Chang?"

"What?" Jasmine asked in response, clearly surprised by the question.

"Cho Chang," Hermione said. "Do you like her? You seemed to be staring at her a lot during the Yule Ball, so, well, I was wondering..."

"No!" Jasmine said emphatically. "She's pretty, sure, and I guess I like her, but I don't  _fancy_  her. I had no idea that I was looking at her in any special way." After a moment's silence, she added, "Chang was wearing an interesting dress. Maybe I was looking at that a bit harder than other dresses, but I honestly don't remember."

Sighing softly with relief, Hermione said, "OK, thanks. I'm sorry, but I was feeling a little worried, I guess. I didn't mean to put you on the spot or anything."

"That's OK," Jasmine said, lightly bumping sideways into Hermione. "If I ever seem to behave that way, don't hesitate to ask." Hermione smiled appreciatively in response.

After they were sitting in Minerva McGonagall's office for tea and discussion, Jasmine decided to get things moving by speaking up first. "Professor McGonagall, what do you know about house elves?" Hermione's eyes widened in surprise, and she almost choked on her tea.  _Why didn't I think to ask a professor_? she lamented.

Caught off guard, Minerva responded, "Well, I know a bit, though I'm no expert by far. What are you looking to know? And why ask me? I didn't expect this topic to come up."

Smiling at Hermione, who was still trying to clean up the tea she had spilled, Jasmine explained, "Hermione has been upset over what she considers to be the enslavement of house elves. Since they lack the freedom to leave a family voluntarily, "slavery" does sound like the correct term. We were told, however, that house elves need to be bonded to a family or magical institution to survive because they need the magic of wizards and witches. That sounds like a relationship that is too likely to be abused. So I was wondering what you knew of it."

Pausing for a few moments to gather her thoughts, Minerva took a drink of tea before answering. "You're right that house elves need the bond to survive. From what I can remember, though, it wasn't always that way. I vaguely recall reading a story about the house elves once being woodland elves, but they were cursed to depend on others for their magic. I'm afraid I don't remember the details, if in fact the story contained them. Perhaps the elves deserved it. Perhaps it was a lesser punishment for evil deeds. Or maybe the only evil was in cursing them."

Hermione piped up then, "So since this sort of existence was imposed on them at one time, does that mean that it can be reversed?"

Minerva considered this for a moment, then said, "In theory, perhaps. In theory, every magic has a counter, though the price one has to pay in order to achieve it might be quite high. Cursing an entire magical species in such an extreme way had to be difficult and costly; reversing such a curse would likely be at least as difficult and costly and perhaps more so, especially given how much time has passed. Even if you could find a way, though, you should take care to be sure that it would be the right thing."

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked with a frown. "How could it not be the right thing to free an enslaved species?"

Smiling thinly, Minerva tried to explain, "Just because slavery is bad doesn't mean that the alternative couldn't be worse. House elves are powerful, and right now they are controlled. Uncontrolled, they might be capable of tremendous damage. What if the original woodland elves had become something akin to magical locusts? What if they were devouring magic wherever they went, and cursing them was a last-ditch solution to control them because they were too strong to kill or easily defend against?"

A horrified look fell upon Hermione's face as she considered the implications of that. "You're right, they wouldn't be the first species to destroy their own environment and thus harm other species."

"Exactly." Minerva was pleased that her student caught on so quickly. Stories had reached her ears about what Hermione was doing to the house elves, and she had been concerned that she'd have to step in; but now it looked like matters could be settled more peacefully. "However evil the binding of house elves might be, it's entirely possible that it's a necessary evil."

"Thank you," Hermione said. "I'll have to think about this a lot more carefully." Turning to Jasmine she said softly, "I'm sorry for being so pushy about the house elves."

Jasmine reached out and gave her hand a squeeze. "Like I said, if you didn't rashly charge into some situation or other, you probably wouldn't be a Gryffindor."

"Did either of you have any other questions — questions related to our earlier and ongoing discussions, that is?" Minerva asked. "Have you read from the book I gave you?"

Blushing suddenly, Hermione answered, "Yes, I've been reading and taking notes from that book. It's fascinating, and sometimes I can't get enough. I wish everyone could see this information because I think it could change so many minds." Sighing, she looked down at her lap before continuing, "But that would only work if they believed it. If they took such arguments and ideas seriously. But I know they don't. It's so... so depressing sometimes."

Minerva reached across and patted the young witch on the hand. "I understand, dear. The problem seems so very large — and it is, given how pervasive it is through all of society. When you look at it, you suddenly feel so very small and not at all up to the task of resisting the overwhelming power of popular bigotry. You know it's wrong, but you don't feel like you can fight it and think that it might be easier to go along with it. If you won't succeed in changing it, why make life difficult for yourself by fighting it?"

Looking up with widened eyes, Hermione said, "Yes, that's it. How did you know?"

Smiling wryly, her professor answered, "I've been around for a few years. I've picked up a few things."

Frowning suddenly, Hermione asked, "Is it true that inequality is inherent in magical marriages — that it can't be avoided?"

Jasmine looked surprised to hear this as Minerva sighed and leaned back again. "It looks like you've stumbled across one of the less savory aspects of magic and magical relationships, Miss Granger."

"So... it's true?" Jasmine asked, horrified.

"After a fashion," Minerva answered. "Like so many other things, it's not a simple yes-or-no answer. For one thing, the problem stems from the creation of magical marriage bonds. They bind the magics of two people together, and such a bond has both benefits and disadvantages. One of the disadvantages is that any disparity in strength of magical power or will can become impossible to ignore. The two people are always tied together, no matter how far apart they may be physically."

"Does it matter that much?" Jasmine asked.

"In magical society, we use magic for just about everything," Minerva pointed out. "So magical power and skill are constantly an issue. If people didn't use that kind of marriage bond, then they could probably ignore the differences a lot more readily, though they'd also be giving up the benefits of having a deep emotional link — a link that helps with emotional stability and magical control." She took a sip of tea before continuing, "I suppose that not using magic very often would help, but in magical society that would be unusual."

"But when one person is magically much stronger than the other, they will end up dominating in the relationship?" Hermione asked.

"If their magic is bound together, yes," Minerva answered. "I'd like to think that in many relationships the difference is quite small, which would mean that it wouldn't matter much — especially if they put in work to overcome it, though not many do. So while some inequality may be inevitable, it need not have much practical impact and the label "dominating" might be incorrect. You'd have a similar situation if a physically strong person was tied to a physically weak person, and every day all their work and leisure were conducted via physical exertion. The stronger one would dominate at least a little. The greater the disparity in strength, the greater the inequality and the less the disparity, the less inequality there would be."

"And I guess if you had two people whose brains were connected, the smarter one would probably tend to dominate if the difference is large enough," Hermione said dispiritedly.

Minerva nodded and said, "Indeed, and few bother to think about the disadvantages or advantages — they simply go along with what already exists."

Hermione sighed and said, "It's not a pleasant thing to think about — I mean, that magic can foster such problems with inequality. I had thought that it would make everything better, not worse." She made a mental note to look into how this influenced politics and culture before she remembered something else and asked, "Oh, Jasmine and I were talking a couple of days ago and thought it might be a good idea to go to Gringotts this coming weekend. Would that work?"

Minerva tapped her chin in thought for a moment before answering, "No, but Friday would. The Headmaster usually spends New Year's Day outside the castle, but the goblins don't close because they celebrate their own New Year at another time. Would you two be ready by Friday?"

"Yes," Hermione answered, "I'm sure we will."

"Good. I recommend sending an owl to them in advance, so they know you're coming in the morning and can be prepared," said Minerva. "Anything else?"

"Oh," Hermione said abruptly, suddenly remembering something. "Jasmine said that she got you something for Christmas. I'm sorry that I didn't think to, but she wouldn't tell me what it was. She said I would have to ask you. So... what did you get?"

Hermione knew she probably should have been content with ignorance when she first saw Jasmine trying to hide her giggles behind her tea cup, then noticed that Professor McGonagall was chuckling, too. "What's so funny? Did I say something wrong?" she asked.

"No, no," Minerva answered. "It's just that Miss Potter's gift was both thoughtful and unusually amusing. Here, let me fetch it to show you." With a wave of her wand, she summoned something from her private rooms. It looked like a….

"Is that... is that a cat bed?" Hermione cried out in surprise.

"Indeed," Minerva said with a great deal of mirth in her voice. "A deluxe, covered cat bed. Inside, Miss Potter included two fur-covered, catnip-filled mice, too."

"Jasmine!" Hermione said, completely scandalized.

"Oh, don't chastise her," Minerva was quick to say. "I actually like them! Few people have ever thought to get me any gifts specifically for my animagus form. I may get cat-themed gifts, like a cat-shaped pin, but that's it. These gifts give me some extra things to do while I'm in my animagus form — things I can't do as a human. In fact, I've shifted to my animagus form more often since I received these than I usually do, just because it's more fun now."

Sending the bed back to her private rooms, she turned to Jasmine and said, "So thank you very much, Miss Potter. I was touched at the thoughtfulness, and I laughed at the cheekiness."

Hermione had no idea what to think about that. It seemed completely inappropriate, yet her professor seemed to sincerely like it.

"I have a question," Jasmine said. At Minerva's nod to continue, Jasmine asked, "Why?"

Nonplussed, Minerva replied, "Why? Why what?"

"Why are you going so far out of your way to help us?" Jasmine asked. "You're giving up a morning or afternoon every Sunday, no small sacrifice to someone holding three important positions at a major school — and during a year when Hogwarts is hosting an international competition, no less. You gave us a rare, priceless book that you admitted you probably shouldn't have had to begin with. You said you'd do anything to help or protect us, which according to you might cost you your job and all your friends. I know you said you wanted to regain our trust, but the oath mostly covers that, I think. So... why?"

Hermione looked a little shocked that Jasmine would question their professor like that, but at the same time she looked equally curious. She couldn't deny that there was some validity to the question. McGonagall had gone still at first, then set down her tea and looked at her lap. After a couple of minutes, which felt like much longer, she looked up and responded, "I believe I also said that I thought it was the right thing to do and that I didn't share our society's prejudices. Isn't that enough?"

Jasmine nodded at that, saying, "Yes, and if you tell me that's all there is then I'll accept that. I just wanted to be sure because I've never had any adult go anywhere close to the lengths you're going for Hermione and me. I'm sorry if I sound ungrateful for being suspicious, but I can't help it. This much help feels... uncomfortable, somehow. I'm not trying to be obstinate or anything. I just wanted the truth."

Minerva remained silent for what seemed like minutes as she stared back down at her lap. Neither Hermione nor Jasmine dared speak, unsure what their professor was thinking about or intending to say.

Finally, she looked back up and announced, "I wish I could say that that was all there is, but it's not. If I'm going to be completely honest with you two — and I think I probably should — then I have to admit that there is quite a lot more to my motivations than what I've told you so far. That said, I don't think I'm prepared to discuss that information right now. It wasn't something that I had prepared myself to deal with today, and I'm afraid that I'm going to need a bit of time to do so."

"Professor," Jasmine started, suddenly filled with remorse. "I didn't mean... I... you don't need to say anything if you don't..."

"Nonsense," the older witch retorted. "You may have been a bit blunt in how you brought up the subject," — and Hermione glared at her girlfriend upon hearing these words, reinforcing the message — "but it is indeed a subject you are justified in asking about. You deserve an answer. I merely need a bit of time before I can give it. I'd like to revisit this, then, either next week or the week after. Would that be acceptable to both of you?"

The two witches nodded vigorously before Hermione grabbed Jasmine's hand and hurriedly exclaimed, "Yes, that will be fine. I just realized that we have to go. Sorry for leaving suddenly. Thanks for everything today, Professor McGonagall. You've been really helpful, like always. Gotta go. Sorry!"

Sighing as the door slammed shut on the pair of young witches, Minerva McGonagall slowly shook her head. "Those two..."

* * *

Dragging Jasmine into an unused classroom, Hermione erected her usual suite of privacy and silencing charms before she turned on her friend. "How could you do that? You shouldn't pry into her life like that! And act so suspicious! She's doing so much to help us!"

"Hermione!" came the loud, sharp response. Seeing that she was shocked into silence, Jasmine continued, "If you notice, she didn't seem to mind being questioned on this. It's a difficult topic for her, that was obvious, but she's willing to tell us. And I'm not going to stop questioning authority figures just because they are being nice or helpful. Just because a person helps dig you out of crap doesn't mean they're your friend."

Hermione was brought up short by this and stared at her girlfriend for a long moment. Then she flopped down in a chair and sighed. "I'm sorry. It's... it's still reflexive for me to get upset at that sort of thing. I may not approve of how blunt you can be when doing it, but I guess I can't disapprove of your motive or goal." Looking back up at her auburn-haired girlfriend, she asked, "Forgive me?"

Jasmine pulled her back up to her feet and into a firm hug before saying, "Of course I do."

Hermione smiled before undoing the spells on the door and leading them out. "C'mon," she said, "We've got to go meet an elf."

* * *

**Sunday, December 27, 1994,Early Evening.**

Arriving in the commandeered classroom on the seventh floor, Jasmine checked the map while Hermione silenced and sealed the door. Once they both were done they sat down and Jasmine called Dobby. With a pop he arrived, "Yes, Missy Jazzy?"

"Hi, Dobby," she said. "Is Winky sober and ready?"

"Yes, Missy Jazzy. Dobby be getting Winky sober, bathed and ready. Should Dobby be bringing Winky now?"

"Yes, Dobby, we'd like to see her now," Jasmine answered.

Dobby popped away then popped back again a few seconds later — this time with a female house elf in tow. She was easily the most pathetic creature either had ever seen. Smaller than Dobby had been even before his bonding, she had short brown hair and was dressed in a stained towel. Her red nose testified to the amount of butterbeer she must have been drinking.

"Oh, no!" the female house elf cried, "It's She-Who-Knits! We is being doomed! Doomed!" She then proceeded to sob uncontrollably, probably convinced that she was about to die a messy, woollen death.

Hermione paled in horror. Jasmine thumped her head on the table. Dobby yanked painfully on his ears, certain that this was all his fault somehow.

Finally, Hermione spoke up, "No, please, don't cry. I'm sorry. I was wrong and I'm trying to do better. Can you help me?" Apparently, asking for help was the golden ticket to getting a house elf to listen, because Winky immediately stopped sobbing and looked up at Hermione with big, confused eyes as a couple of tears rolled down her cheeks.

"You be wanting Winky's help? Why? Winky be a disgraced elf. Winky be wanting a family, but no family be wanting Winky." It was obvious to all that she was about to start sobbing hysterically again, so Hermione acted fast to stave off the waterworks.

"I don't think you're a disgraced house elf, Winky," Hermione tried to explain. "I think you were treated badly. I knitted hats because I thought all house elves were treated badly and I only wanted them to be treated well. I thought freedom would help them achieve that, but I learned that I was wrong. In fact, I learned that I was wrong about a lot of things, and I need a house elf to help me learn."

Winky stared and blinked a few times at Hermione. She had never encountered a witch or wizard who was interested in  _learning from_  a house elf.

"I don't think you're a disgrace. I think you are a good elf — a good and loyal elf. That's why Jasmine asked Dobby to bring you here this evening," Hermione continued, pleased to see that the female elf was still listening intently rather than sobbing. "I'd like to bond with a house elf who will teach me and do work for me. I'll bond with you, but  **only**  if you're sure that it's what you want. I don't want to force it on you. If you'd prefer to try to find another family, that's fine."

Winky looked a bit pensive at hearing this. She wasn't used to being asked her opinion; instead, witches and wizards usually just issued orders and expected those orders to be carried out. This witch had to be awfully weird to care about what house elves thought, but it wasn't as if Winky had any better families wanting to bond with her. Or any families at all, for that matter.

Fixing Hermione with a stern gaze, she said, "Winky be willing, but only if Winky able to be proper and respectable house elf. Winky not be taking pay like Dobby, here."

Looking at Jasmine, who gave her a nod of encouragement, Hermione responded, "Jasmine gave Dobby a list of standing orders that she required Dobby to be willing to follow as a condition of bonding with her. I'll want to use the same orders. One is that you'll get an allowance — it's not pay, it's an allowance. In families, family members often get an allowance so they can buy what they want. You can buy gifts for Dobby, Jasmine, me, or anyone. You can buy yarn to knit your own things. You can buy pictures to hang in your room. Or not even use it at all, if you prefer. Whatever you want."

Winky looked like she was going to flat-out refuse at first, but as Hermione explained, she started looking confused and then finally intrigued. She didn't want to be paid, but the idea of buying gifts or pictures sounded interesting. She wanted to be part of a family, so if an allowance was part of being a family, then maybe that would be acceptable. Giving Hermione a suspicious look, she said, "So long as it not be being pay for work, Winky be accepting. Is that all? Can Winky be bonded now?"

"That's not all," Hermione said, "but the rest are all simple. You must take a day off each week, either all at once or spread out. This is to ensure that you are well rested — a tired or sick house elf can't work as well." Hermione almost forgot to add the last bit, but then she remembered Jasmine's advice that couching the rules in terms of being able to work better would make the elves feel better.

Continuing, she said, "You must tell me if you ever want to bond to another family. I know you may not ever want to do so, but I'll feel better if I know that you'll ask. It's for me, not for you. Next, you should feel free to give me advice or let me know if you think that I'm going about things wrong. I know little about magical society, and you know tons more than I, so I'll need your help. Don't assume that I must know what I'm doing — speak up if you know of a better way of doing things."

Hermione had to stop to think for a moment to be sure she remembered everything. "Next, you're allowed to be creative when doing what I ask, but whenever possible you should check with me first. That ensures you don't interfere with what I have planned. Next, in order to keep my secrets, you'll need to work here and pretend to be a Hogwarts elf for the time being. You can't let anyone know that you're bonded to me. Once that is no longer needed, you'll get a uniform. That's not the same as clothes. Uniforms are worn by professional workers and let people know that they have important jobs. Finally, you're not allowed to punish yourself." Giving a wicked grin at Jasmine, she concluded, "Mistress is in charge of punishments." Even out of the corner of her eye, she could see Jasmine blushing furiously.

Winky took several long moments to think through all of these orders. It was confusing, because they sounded at first like orders that no respectable house elf would ever want to follow. Money? Time off? Uniforms? But as this witch explained them, they were somehow meant to help her do better work and be a better house elf. That sounded nice. Most witches and wizards didn't do much to help elves like that. Winky was skeptical, but this witch was friends with the Great Mistress Jasmine Potter, so maybe there was hope for her.

Looking at Hermione, Winky said, "Yes, Winky wanting to be you's house elf."

Following Jasmine's instructions, Hermione knelt down in front of Winky, reached her hands out, and placed them both flat on the top of Winky's head. Speaking in a clear, firm voice, she said, "I take Winky to be my house elf, to be my friend, and to be a part of my family."

Just as Jasmine described her experience with Dobby, a bright, magical glow enveloped Hermione and Winky both. When they could all see again, they found Winky standing straighter and a bit taller — just like Dobby had become, though she was still slightly shorter than him. Winky herself was amazed at how much stronger and healthier she felt. Never in all her years working for the Crouch family had she felt anything like this! It looked like working for Missy Hermy would be a very, very good thing.

"Did you have a magical, glowing light as well?" Hermione asked Jasmine, more than a little awestruck at the experience.

"Yep," Jasmine answered, "and I think it was about that bright, too."

"Huh," Hermione said absently, wondering what it might mean.

After answering a few more questions and telling both elves that they could take orders from either witch, they let Dobby and Winky go back to doing Hogwarts work. Once the two elves were in the kitchens, Winky grabbed Dobby by an ear and dragged him into a corner for some privacy. "Dobby!" she said in as stern a manner as her high-pitched voice could manage. "You be forgetting to tell Winky about those two witches. They be witchy witches! Do they know?"

Looking a bit furtive, Dobby tried to prevaricate by saying, "Dobby be sure that they know they be witchy. Heh."

Furious, Winky made a fist and bopped Dobby on the top of his noggin, making him flinch away. She had standing orders not to punish  _herself_ , but she hadn't been ordered not to punish  _Dobby_  when he was being foolish. Knowing him the way she did, this was probably going to be needed regularly. Fortunately, she also had permission to be  _creative_ , which was definitely going to come in handy with this fool of an elf.

"No, Dobby, not that. Do they  **know**? Don't be making me say it!"

"Oh, that. Dobby not be thinking so. They not be knowing much about wizard history. Or witchy history."

Winky removed the threat of her fist from above Dobby's noggin so she could think about that for a minute. "That not be good. It be dangerous that they not be knowing." Pulling on her ears, she started to moan, "Oh, but we is not being able to be telling them!"

Trying to calm the upset house elf, Dobby removed her hands from her ears and explained, "Dobby be knowing. We is not being allowed to be  _telling_ , but we is being allowed to be  _helping_. Missy Jazzy and Missy Hermy be telling us, we is being allowed to be  _creative_. So Dobby be helping where Dobby can, like providing special ring set."

Winky gasped in surprise. "You's being responsible for the rings they's being wearing! Oh, Dobby being smart house elf! Yes, yes, we's being creative in helping our witchy witches!"

Dobby beamed at the praise. Most house elves called him weird or a disgrace, but he had always known that he had a higher calling — a special purpose that was suited just for him. When his time came, all the other house elves would be looking up to him, Dobby the Great!

And now it turned out that he was only partially right. He did have a higher calling and a special purpose, but he had been wrong in thinking it was just for him. He never expected to have help, but now he did: Winky. Two special, creative house elves for two special, witchy witches. It was better than he could have imagined it! He was so excited!

And better yet, tonight it was his turn to clean Snape's toilet!  _Life doesn't get any better than this_ , he thought with a smile.

* * *

**Sunday, December 27, 1994, Late Evening.**

As Hermione was climbing into bed to get some sleep...  _and maybe do a little light reading beforehand_ , she thought, she was suddenly joined by Jasmine, who climbed in behind her and quickly closed the curtains. "Jas," she asked, "what's wrong?"

Giving her brunette girlfriend a serious look, Jasmine explained, "I haven't forgotten that letter you got from your parents before Christmas. I haven't had a chance to say anything before, but I haven't forgotten. You looked kind of sad when you read it. Is everything alright? You can talk to me about it, if you want."

Getting comfortable by sitting on the bed cross-legged next to her friend, Hermione sighed and started picking at lint on her comforter before beginning to speak. "It's nothing bad, Jasmine, really. It's just… well, it's the usual, I guess. And not."

"Well, that's pretty specific."

Bumping up against the green-eyed witch's shoulder, Hermione said defensively, "It's hard to explain."

"I'm ready and willing to listen." Jasmine then proceeded to lay down with her head in Hermione's lap. Smiling back, Hermione ceased picking at lint and instead started stroking Jasmine's auburn hair. It was an action that calmed and relaxed both witches.

"My biggest concern right now is what to tell them about us," Hermione began again. "I don't know how they will react. Their politics have been generally progressive in the past, at least from what I know, but I can't remember them ever commenting on stories involving gays, gay pride, or anti-gay laws. So I don't know. They've always been supportive of me, but also distant, as you know. And on top of that, even if I were sure they'd be accepting, I'm not comfortable telling them via owl post. Even a phone call would be better, despite being less than ideal. But if I don't tell them, then that means I have to conceal so much about what's happening this year — more than usual, I think, which creates more distance between us." Sighing again, she said softly "I don't know what to do."

"Concealing more than usual?" Jasmine asked.

Frowning, Hermione explained, "I never give them the full story about any dangerous events here. However distant they may act, I'm pretty sure that they'd pull me from this school instantly if they had any idea how often my life has been in danger." Stopping for a moment, she moved from stroking Jasmine's hair to lightly stroking her cheek. "Once I made my first friend, a witch named Jasmine Potter, there was no way that I could allow that to happen." Smiling, Jasmine leaned into her girlfriend's hand.

Continuing, Hermione said, "As for the non-dangerous stuff... I never bothered to tell them everything, especially personal things because... I guess it felt too personal. We're not close enough for me to feel comfortable telling them personal things. Other stuff was stuff I didn't think they could relate to, like certain types of magic. What do muggles know or care about transfiguration theory? Since academics encompasses a lot of what I do, that means not much has been left to talk about. Ironically, there has been more to write about this year despite me having more to conceal. But it's been hard writing to them the last couple of times because I have to be careful in what I say about you."

Jasmine tried hard not to frown. She didn't want to let on what she was thinking, but she was starting to wonder how much of the estrangement between Hermione and her parents might be Hermione's fault. Originally she had assumed they shouldered all the blame because... well, in her experience adults were always to blame. And how could Hermione possibly be responsible for something like that? Now, though, she was seeing exactly how Hermione's behavior could at least contribute to it. And if she behaved similarly before coming to Hogwarts... well, maybe her parents were even more confused and lost than she was.

Not sure exactly how she would even begin to solve this, but deciding to take a page from her girlfriend's book by following the maxim that knowledge is power, she said, "Tell me about your parents."

Confused, Hermione responded, "I've already told you about them. They're dentists. They own their own practice."

"No, more than that," Jasmine said. "Where do they come from? Where did they go to school? How did they meet? What are their hobbies? Where does your family live?"

Still confused, she asked, "Why do you want to know all that?"

"Please, just humor me," Jasmine implored.

Not wanting to argue the point, Hermione leaned back with her pillow between her and the headboard and started to tell Jasmine more details about her parents and her family. Eventually the two witches fell asleep like that — Hermione leaning back against the headboard and Jasmine with her head in Hermione's lap. Neither position was comfortable, but neither witch would have traded their sleeping position for anything... except maybe to exchange places with the other.


End file.
